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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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- Aug 31, 2023

Conference time: Lyon in a heatwave

Goldschmidt conference with 6 SandLab people

Taru, Toosin and Karina giving talks,

Saghar was very busy at her poster poster

Carlota and Pablo took the PhreeqC course.

10dO1 - Biomolecule-mineral interactions in terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments: past and present

Karina´s Keynote:

A geochemical perspective on DNA preservation in sediments: implications for ecological inference and bacterial evolution

Karina Krarup Sand, Taru Verma, Stanislav Jelavic, Dr. Saghar Hendiani, PhD, Ana Prohaska, Mette Burmølle and Colin Freeman

Taru´s Talk:

Sedimentary DNA can influence evolution: Establishing mineral facilitated horizontal gene transfer as a route to increased bacterial fitness

Taru Verma, Dr. Saghar Hendiani, PhD, Sandra Breum Andersen, Mette Burmølle and Karina Krarup Sand

Toosin´s Talk:

Biomacromolecules in Arctica islandica shells: molecular signatures of a bivalved Methuselah at micron and submicron scale

Oluwatoosin B. A. Agbaje, Qian Huang, Michiel Op De Beeck, Lisbeth G. Thygesen, Bernd R. Schöne, Per L. Ambus and Karina Krarup Sand

Saghar´s Poster:

Importance of bacteria-mineral associations for biofilm development and gene transfer efficiency

Dr. Saghar Hendiani, PhD, Milda Pucetaite, Michiel Op de Beeck, Mads Frederik Hansen, Taru Verma, Ines Mandić Mulec, Mette Burmølle and Karina Krarup Sand

Thanks lots to the organizers for having us and for VILLUM Fonden for supporting the talks by Karina, Saghar and Taru and to Horizon 2020 for supporting Toosins work.

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