Globally distributed mining-impacted environments are underexplored hotspots of multidrug resistance genes.

ABSTRACT: Mining is among the human activities with widest environmental impacts, and mining-impacted environments are characterized by high levels of metals that can co-select for antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in microorganisms. However, ARGs in mining-impacted environments are still poorly understood. Here, we conducted a comprehensive study of ARGs in such environments worldwide, taking advantage of 272 metagenomes generated from a global-scale data collection and two national sampling efforts in China. The average total abundance of the ARGs in globally distributed studied mine sites was 1572 times per gigabase, being rivaling that of urban sewage but much higher than that of freshwater sediments. Multidrug resistance genes accounted for 40% of the total ARG abundance, tended to co-occur wi

SUBMITTER: Yi X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9381775 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature