Detection of critical antibiotic resistance genes through routine microbiome surveillance

PLoS One. 2019 Mar 14;14(3):e0213280. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213280. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Population-based public health data on antibiotic resistance gene carriage is poorly surveyed. Research of the human microbiome as an antibiotic resistance reservoir has primarily focused on gut associated microbial communities, but data have shown more widespread microbial colonization across organs than originally believed, with organs previously considered as sterile being colonized. Our study demonstrates the utility of postmortem microbiome sampling during routine autopsy as a method to survey antibiotic resistance carriage in a general population. Postmortem microbial sampling detected pathogens of public health concern including genes for multidrug efflux pumps, carbapenem, methicillin, vancomycin, and polymixin resistances. Results suggest that postmortem assessments of host-associated microbial communities are useful in acquiring community specific data while reducing selective-participant biases.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology*
  • Bacteria / drug effects
  • Bacteria / genetics*
  • Bacterial Infections / diagnosis*
  • Bacterial Infections / epidemiology
  • Bacterial Infections / genetics
  • Bacterial Infections / microbiology
  • Cadaver
  • Drug Resistance, Microbial / genetics*
  • Genes, Bacterial*
  • Humans
  • Metagenome*
  • Microbiota
  • Population Surveillance*
  • United States / epidemiology

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents

Grants and funding

Funding was provided by Mississippi State University and the National Institute of Justice (2014-DN-BX-K008). Opinions or points of view expressed represent a consensus of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.