The Human Gut Microbiome as a Transporter of Antibiotic Resistance Genes between Continents.

ABSTRACT: Previous studies of antibiotic resistance dissemination by travel have, by targeting only a select number of cultivable bacterial species, omitted most of the human microbiome. Here, we used explorative shotgun metagenomic sequencing to address the abundance of >300 antibiotic resistance genes in fecal specimens from 35 Swedish students taken before and after exchange programs on the Indian peninsula or in Central Africa. All specimens were additionally cultured for extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing enterobacteria, and the isolates obtained were genome sequenced. The overall taxonomic diversity and composition of the gut microbiome remained stable before and after travel, but there was an increasing abundance of Proteobacteria in 25/35 students. The relative abundance of an

SUBMITTER: Bengtsson-Palme J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4576037 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature