Infections caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens pose high risks to human and animal health worldwide. In recent years, the environment and wildlife as major sources and reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are being increasingly investigated. There have been many reports on bacterial community in ticks, but little is known about ARGs they carry, and the correlation between bacterial and ARGs in wild ticks also remains unknown. Here, the profiles of microbial community and antibiotic resistome in wild tick species were investigated using high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing and smart chip-based high-throughput quantitative PCR approach (HT-qPCR), respectively. We found that bacterial composition in wild tick species is variable; the sequenced reads from all samples were assigned to 37 different phyla at the phylum level. The dominant phylum was Proteobacteria, which accounted for 75.60 ± 10.34%, followed by Bacteroidetes accounting for 13.78 ± 11.68% of the total bacterial community. In total, 100 different ARGs across 12 antibiotic classes and 20 mobile genetic elements (MGEs) were identified by HT-qPCR, and among them aminoglycosides, multidrug, macrolide-clinolamide-streptogramin B, and tetracycline resistance genes were the dominant ARG types. Co-occurrence patterns revealed by network analysis showed that eight bacterial genera may serve as the potential hosts for different ARGs. For the first time, this study provides comprehensive overview of the diversity and abundance of ARGs in wild ticks and highlights the possible role of wild ticks as ARG disseminators into the environment and vertebrate hosts, with implications for human and animal health. IMPORTANCE The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria poses serious threat to the public health around the world. Ticks are obligate hematophagous ectoparasites, surviving via feeding on the blood of various animal hosts. Although some previous studies have confirmed wild ticks carried various bacterial community, the role of wild ticks in the antibiotic resistance remains unknown. Here, identification of microbial community and antibiotic resistome in wild tick species revealed that wild ticks are the reservoir, postulated potential spreaders of antibiotic resistance. Our findings highlight the contribution of wild ticks to the maintenance and dissemination of ARGs, and the associated health risks.
Keywords: antibiotic resistance; antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs); microbiome; tick; wild ticks.