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DISTRIBUTION OF ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE GENES IN THE ENVIRONMENT:

THE ROLE OF MINERAL FACILITATED HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER

Combining recent research across disciplines, I see evidence that minerals hold a high and unrecognized potential for enhancing the distribution of the ARg in the environment. Adsorption of ARg to minerals significantly increases the ARg’s lifetime and facilitates their distribution by sedimentary transport processes. In addition, minerals also serve as a) sites for horizontal gene transfer (HGT), b) platforms for microbial growth and, hence 3) act as hot spots for propagation of adsorbed ARg to other microbes. However, some minerals and ARg are bound more strongly than others and various bacteria have different affinities toward various minerals. Those variations in affinity are poorly quantified but vital for predicting the distribution of ARg in the environment.

bug colony.png

Bacterial colony formation.

Image by Lisselotte Jauffred (collaborator from NBI)

The spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARg) is a worldwide health risk1 and is no longer only a clinical issue. Vast reservoirs of ARg are found in natural environments2–4 such as soils, sediments and oceans. The emergence and release of ARg to the environment is in particular caused by extended use of antibiotics in farming, e.g. where the genes dissipate from the manure.5 Once in the environment, the ARg are surprisingly rapidly propagated. It is well known that the ARg are distributed to neighbour bacteria through processes of both cell sharing or through horizontal gene transfer (HGT) where one species acquirer resistance from another.6,7 Most HGT responsible for the spread of ARg are assumed to be through direct microbe-microbe contact. However, I find that the outcome of non-contact transfer is grossly underestimated. In the HGT mechanism called “Transformation”, free ARg in suspension or adsorbed to a mineral can be picked up and incorporated into non-related organisms. Considering that free DNA only can survive for a few weeks in sea- and freshwater environments,8–10 any HGT from free DNA can rightly be assumed to be local, but if the DNA gets adsorbed to a mineral, it can survive for several hundred thousands of years.11–14 If this also holds for ARg, then minerals offer a potent mechanism for distributing ARg through our environments my means of sedimentary processes.

KKS

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BLOOM festival: Talking about the origin and evolution of life

karinasand
Jun 4, 2022
1 min read

Updated: Jun 12, 2022

On a rainy and chill late May Friday I took the stage flanked by Kai Finster and Tobias Wang and dived into how life originated and evolved.

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In our one hour symposium session, that was moderated by Bo Karl Christensen, we to talked about the formation of the earth, our moon, the origin of life and how life further evolved. That was a lot for one hour. I do enjoy BLOOM´s ability to combine people with different backgrounds as it, in principle, provide a broader and more rounded understanding of complex topics. I guess this is a little hidden shout-out to funding agencies of all sorts to prioritize projects that work across disciplines. It is challenging to do and require focus on communication and time for exploration.

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Me looking a bit cross as I was not allowed to elaborate on the potential role of minerals in the origin and evolution of life..

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Thanks to BLOOM for a wonderful Festival and for continuously celebration of natural sciences and for highlighting its relevance and perspectives.

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