Metagenomic analysis of apple orchard soil reveals antibiotic resistance genes encoding predicted bifunctional proteins.

ABSTRACT: To gain insight into the diversity and origins of antibiotic resistance genes, we identified resistance genes in the soil in an apple orchard using functional metagenomics, which involves inserting large fragments of foreign DNA into Escherichia coli and assaying the resulting clones for expressed functions. Among 13 antibiotic-resistant clones, we found two genes that encode bifunctional proteins. One predicted bifunctional protein confers resistance to ceftazidime and contains a natural fusion between a predicted transcriptional regulator and a beta-lactamase. Sequence analysis of the entire metagenomic clone encoding the predicted bifunctional beta-lactamase revealed a gene potentially involved in chloramphenicol resistance as well as a predicted transposase. A second clone that encodes

SUBMITTER: Donato JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2897439 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature