Lateral Antimicrobial Resistance Genetic Transfer is active in the open environment.

ABSTRACT: Historically, the environment has been viewed as a passive deposit of antimicrobial resistance mechanisms, where bacteria show biological cost for maintenance of these genes. Thus, in the absence of antimicrobial pressure, it is expected that they disappear from environmental bacterial communities. To test this scenario, we studied native IntI1 functionality of 11 class 1 integron-positive environmental strains of distant genera collected in cold and subtropical forests of Argentina. We found natural competence and successful site-specific insertion with no significant fitness cost of both aadB and bla _VIM-2 antimicrobial resistance gene cassettes, in a model system without antibiotic pressure. A bidirectional flow of antimicrobial resistance gene cassettes between natural and n

SUBMITTER: Chamosa LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5428826 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature