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.
STUDENT PROJECTS
Projects for students with a science background including geology, chemistry, surface geochemistry, archaeology, proteomics, microbiology. We are combining nano-bulk level approches and you do NOT need to know much about the topic or instrumentation. Interest and motivation is plenty. Send an informal email for for more info:
ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY
Did you ever wonder how reactive a mineral surface is, how a molecule in fact associate it self with different surfaces, how strong a bond is or how bacteria can induce changes to a solid surface, or how and how fast enzymes can degrade molecules?
BIOMOLECULES
We are interested in understanding how biomolecules associate with different substrates and how adsorption can help preserving molecules such as polysaccharides, proteins, DNA and lipids across space and time.
GEOLOGICAL AND URBAN SURFACES
We work with common soil and marine sedimentary minerals as well as urban particles such as soot, plastics and a range of fibers. We are interested to unravel how different surface characteristics aid preservation, transport and gene transfer of molecules.
BACTERIA, BIOFILMS & HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER
Can minerals help propagate evolutionary innovations?
We study mineral facilitated horizontal gene transfer to unravel if minerals and interfacial principles play a role for the evolution of life.