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.
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.
RESOURCES ON DIVERSITY
Why do I have to "dress" down to appear like a Clark Kent to make it in academia?
After returning to the University of Copenhagen from a 3 year post doc period in the states I realized that I repeatedly, because of my gender, was expected to conform to a a stereotype.
I was also offered to be fixed.
I am trying to understand why gender is a qualification in academia and how to change that.
I found the below resources useful.
Also, I did pass on the offers to be trained to act like a white man.
GENDER and IDENTITY
(Peach-pink throughout March)
‘Narrative’ CVs seeks evidence of applicants’ wider contributions to science
Achieving STEM diversity: Fix the classrooms
Women more likely to win awards that are not named after men
Gender Bias in Student Evaluations: Student evaluations measure conformity with gendered expectations rather than teaching quality
Academia has a wider gender pay gap relative to industry
Women's experiences with gender discrimination and lower identification with more senior staff produce reduced expectations of success in career advancement
Making Jokes During a Presentation Helps Men But Hurts Women
LGBTQ status as a clear axis of inequality in STEM
Men found to cite work by men significantly more often than work by women
Female TA got five times as many negative reviews as male TA. The TA tasks was performed by the same male.
Can you train people to be less biased?
Day-to-day work of diversity and inclusion
What it takes for women to be heard
Gender inequity in speaking opportunities (American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting)
Diversity in finalist pool influence hiring decisions
Research in gender and equality
Bring on bias awareness to improve gender and ethnicity balance.
Thank you: The most influential people in global policy 2019
Do we need to adapt men´s grant writing styles to make it?
Cards developed to help convey and id gender bias in the workplace.
Conveying it is OK to have a family
Female scientists get less money and staff for their first labs
Gender differences in peer review
How some men are challenging gender inequity in the lab
How the entire scientific community can confront gender bias in the workplace
How female scientists can confront gender bias in the workplace
Men and women need different kinds of networks to succeed
Beregning: Kvinder burde få mange flere Nobelpriser
How the leadership can confront gender bias in the workplace
Gender equality in grant making. What can a funder do?
A gendered world will produce a gendered brain
Why don't people like the sound of "woman president"?
War of words.
Women are judged by the way they speak
Patchy progress on fixing global gender disparities in science
Women postdocs less likely than men to get a glowing reference
6 Things Successful Women in STEM Have in Common
To learn inclusion skills, make it personal
10 Female Scientists who changed the world
The Lancet, advancing women in science, medicine and global health
Repository of women in STEM resources
Women in the workplace - McKinsey & Company
MINORITIES
(AND IN-BETWEENS)
Reimbursement policies make academia less inclusive
A disadvantaged background doesn’t have to be a barrier to success
TOWARD A JUST WORKPLACE
Resources targeted to educate white people
Science and Colonialism
-Overviews
-Earth Sciences and Colonialism
-Other Sciences and Colonialism
-Science and Colonialism in Specific Regions
-Modern Legacies
-Doing Science Now: Occupied Land, Indigenous Partnerships, Possibilities of Decolonization?
"Racialization, Racism, and Anti-Racism in the Nordic Countries”, edited by Peter Hervik
How does anti-Black racism show up in academia
Toward a racially just workplace
Day-to-day work of diversity and inclusion
How Accountable Business Leaders Are Called To Tackle Racism
Academic bullying is too often ignored
ACTIONS
W O R K I N P R O G R E S S
gender bias: Women in Science and Engineering
DAY TO DAY WORK:
Regularly ask yourself/your team key questions such as:
-How am I educating myself and my stakeholders about
structural racism?
-How am I holding space to
allow for conversations about structural racism in my company?
-What practices does my company have in place to support Black and People of Color team members?
-How am I supporting Black and People of Color business leaders that are in the B Corp community or other communities I’m a part of?
-How am I supporting civic engagement to hold public leaders accountable and tackle structural racism in our systems of government?
