Metagenomic frameworks for monitoring antibiotic resistance in aquatic environments.

ABSTRACT:

Background

High-throughput genomic technologies offer new approaches for environmental health monitoring, including metagenomic surveillance of antibiotic resistance determinants (ARDs). Although natural environments serve as reservoirs for antibiotic resistance genes that can be transferred to pathogenic and human commensal bacteria, monitoring of these determinants has been infrequent and incomplete. Furthermore, surveillance efforts have not been integrated into public health decision making.

Objectives

We used a metagenomic epidemiology-based approach to develop an ARD index that quantifies antibiotic resistance potential, and we analyzed this index for common modal patterns across environmental samples. We also explored how metagenomic data such as this index could be c

SUBMITTER: Port JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3948035 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature