Antimicrobial resistance genes and associated mobile genetic elements in Lactobacillales from various sources

Eszter Kaszab; Levente Laczkó; Gábor Kardos; Krisztián Bányai

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1281473

Antimicrobial resistance genes and associated mobile genetic elements in Lactobacillales from various sources

Front Microbiol. 2023 Nov 17:14:1281473. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1281473. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Eszter Kaszab^#^{1

2

3}, Levente Laczkó^#^{2

4}, Gábor Kardos^{2

3

5

6}, Krisztián Bányai^{1

3

7}

Affiliations

¹ HUN-REN Veterinary Medical Research Institute, Budapest, Hungary.
² One Health Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
³ National Laboratory of Infectious Animal Diseases, Antimicrobial Resistance, Veterinary Public Health and Food Chain Safety, Veterinary Medical Research Institute, Budapest, Hungary.
⁴ HUN-REN-DE Conservation Biology Research Group, Debrecen, Hungary.
⁵ National Public Health Center, Budapest, Hungary.
⁶ Department of Gerontology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
⁷ Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Budapest, Hungary.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Lactobacillales are commonly used in food products and as probiotics in animal and human medicine. Despite being generally recognized as safe, lactic acid bacteria may harbor a variety of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), which may be transferable to human or veterinary pathogens, thus, may pose veterinary and public health concerns. This study investigates the resistome of Lactobacillales. A total of 4,286 whole-genome sequences were retrieved from NCBI RefSeq database. We screened ARGs in whole genome sequences and assessed if they are transmissible by plasmid transfer or by linkage to integrative mobile genetic elements. In the database, 335 strains were found to carry at least one ARG, and 194 strains carried at least one potentially transferable ARG. The most prevalent transferable ARG were tetM and tetW conferring antibiotic resistance to tetracycline. This study highlights the importance of the One Health concept by demonstrating the potential for Lactobacillales, commonly used in food products, to serve as reservoirs and vectors for ARGs.

Keywords: Lactobacillales; antimicrobial resistance genes; iMGE; one health; plasmid.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The work is supported by project GINOP-2.3.4-15-2020-00008. The project is cofinanced by the European Union and the European Regional Development Fund. Additional support was provided by the National Laboratory for Infectious Animal Diseases, Antimicrobial Resistance, Veterinary Public Health, and Food Chain Safety, RRF-2.3.1-21-2022-00001 and the SA-27/2021 grant of the Eötvös Loránd Research Network.