A reservoir of 'historical' antibiotic resistance genes in remote pristine Antarctic soils.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Soil bacteria naturally produce antibiotics as a competitive mechanism, with a concomitant evolution, and exchange by horizontal gene transfer, of a range of antibiotic resistance mechanisms. Surveys of bacterial resistance elements in edaphic systems have originated primarily from human-impacted environments, with relatively little information from remote and pristine environments, where the resistome may comprise the ancestral gene diversity.

Methods

We used shotgun metagenomics to assess antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) distribution in 17 pristine and remote Antarctic surface soils within the undisturbed Mackay Glacier region. We also interrogated the phylogenetic placement of ARGs compared to environmental ARG sequences and tested for the presence of horizonta

SUBMITTER: Van Goethem MW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5824556 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature