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Dadeh Amirfard K, Moriyama M, Suzuki S, Sano D. Effect of environmental factors on conjugative transfer of antibiotic resistance genes in aquatic settings. J Appl Microbiol 2024; 135:lxae129. [PMID: 38830804 DOI: 10.1093/jambio/lxae129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2023] [Revised: 04/25/2024] [Accepted: 06/02/2024] [Indexed: 06/05/2024]
Abstract
Antimicrobial-resistance genes (ARGs) are spread among bacteria by horizontal gene transfer, however, the effect of environmental factors on the dynamics of the ARG in water environments has not been very well understood. In this systematic review, we employed the regression tree algorithm to identify the environmental factors that facilitate/inhibit the transfer of ARGs via conjugation in planktonic/biofilm-formed bacterial cells based on the results of past relevant research. Escherichia coli strains were the most studied genus for conjugation experiments as donor/recipient in the intra-genera category. Conversely, Pseudomonas spp., Acinetobacter spp., and Salmonella spp. were studied primarily as recipients across inter-genera bacteria. The conjugation efficiency (ce) was found to be highly dependent on the incubation period. Some antibiotics, such as nitrofurantoin (at ≥0.2 µg ml-1) and kanamycin (at ≥9.5 mg l-1) as well as metallic compounds like mercury (II) chloride (HgCl2, ≥3 µmol l-1), and vanadium (III) chloride (VCl3, ≥50 µmol l-1) had enhancing effect on conjugation. The highest ce value (-0.90 log10) was achieved at 15°C-19°C, with linoleic acid concentrations <8 mg l-1, a recognized conjugation inhibitor. Identifying critical environmental factors affecting ARG dissemination in aquatic environments will accelerate strategies to control their proliferation and combat antibiotic resistance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katayoun Dadeh Amirfard
- Department of Frontier Science for Advanced Environment, Tohoku University, Aoba 6-6-06, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan
| | - Momoko Moriyama
- Department of Frontier Science for Advanced Environment, Tohoku University, Aoba 6-6-06, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan
| | - Satoru Suzuki
- Center for Marine Environmental Studies, Ehime University, Bunkyōchō 2-5, Matsuyama, Ehime 790-8577, Japan
| | - Daisuke Sano
- Department of Frontier Science for Advanced Environment, Tohoku University, Aoba 6-6-06, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tohoku University, Aoba 6-6-06, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan
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Ma Y, Ramoneda J, Johnson DR. Timing of antibiotic administration determines the spread of plasmid-encoded antibiotic resistance during microbial range expansion. Nat Commun 2023; 14:3530. [PMID: 37316482 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39354-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2023] [Accepted: 06/08/2023] [Indexed: 06/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Plasmids are the main vector by which antibiotic resistance is transferred between bacterial cells within surface-associated communities. In this study, we ask whether there is an optimal time to administer antibiotics to minimize plasmid spread in new bacterial genotypes during community expansion across surfaces. We address this question using consortia of Pseudomonas stutzeri strains, where one is an antibiotic resistance-encoding plasmid donor and the other a potential recipient. We allowed the strains to co-expand across a surface and administered antibiotics at different times. We find that plasmid transfer and transconjugant proliferation have unimodal relationships with the timing of antibiotic administration, where they reach maxima at intermediate times. These unimodal relationships result from the interplay between the probabilities of plasmid transfer and loss. Our study provides mechanistic insights into the transfer and proliferation of antibiotic resistance-encoding plasmids within microbial communities and identifies the timing of antibiotic administration as an important determinant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yinyin Ma
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), 8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland.
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), 8092, Zürich, Switzerland.
| | - Josep Ramoneda
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), 8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland
- Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA
| | - David R Johnson
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), 8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland.
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
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Haley BJ, Kim SW, Salaheen S, Hovingh E, Van Kessel JAS. Virulome and genome analyses identify associations between antimicrobial resistance genes and virulence factors in highly drug-resistant Escherichia coli isolated from veal calves. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0265445. [PMID: 35298535 PMCID: PMC8929554 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265445] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2021] [Accepted: 03/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Food animals are known reservoirs of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Escherichia coli, but information regarding the factors influencing colonization by these organisms is lacking. Here we report the genomic analysis of 66 MDR E. coli isolates from non-redundant veal calf fecal samples. Genes conferring resistance to aminoglycosides, β-lactams, sulfonamides, and tetracyclines were the most frequent antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) detected and included those that confer resistance to clinically significant antibiotics (blaCMY-2, blaCTX-M, mph(A), erm(B), aac(6’)Ib-cr, and qnrS1). Co-occurrence analyses indicated that multiple ARGs significantly co-occurred with each other, and with metal and biocide resistance genes (MRGs and BRGs). Genomic analysis also indicated that the MDR E. coli isolated from veal calves were highly diverse. The most frequently detected genotype was phylogroup A-ST Cplx 10. A high percentage of isolates (50%) were identified as sequence types that are the causative agents of extra-intestinal infections (ExPECs), such as ST69, ST410, ST117, ST88, ST617, ST648, ST10, ST58, and ST167, and an appreciable number of these isolates encoded virulence factors involved in the colonization and infection of the human urinary tract. There was a significant difference in the presence of multiple accessory virulence factors (VFs) between MDR and susceptible strains. VFs associated with enterohemorrhagic infections, such as stx, tir, and eae, were more likely to be harbored by antimicrobial-susceptible strains, while factors associated with extraintestinal infections such as the sit system, aerobactin, and pap fimbriae genes were more likely to be encoded in resistant strains. A comparative analysis of SNPs between strains indicated that several closely related strains were recovered from animals on different farms indicating the potential for resistant strains to circulate among farms. These results indicate that veal calves are a reservoir for a diverse group of MDR E. coli that harbor various resistance genes and virulence factors associated with human infections. Evidence of co-occurrence of ARGs with MRGs, BRGs, and iron-scavenging genes (sit and aerobactin) may lead to management strategies for reducing colonization of resistant bacteria in the calf gut.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bradd J. Haley
- Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Seon Woo Kim
- Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD, United States of America
| | - Serajus Salaheen
- Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD, United States of America
| | - Ernest Hovingh
- Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States of America
| | - Jo Ann S. Van Kessel
- Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD, United States of America
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Huisman JS, Benz F, Duxbury SJN, de Visser JAGM, Hall AR, Fischer EAJ, Bonhoeffer S. Estimating plasmid conjugation rates: A new computational tool and a critical comparison of methods. Plasmid 2022; 121:102627. [PMID: 35271855 DOI: 10.1016/j.plasmid.2022.102627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2021] [Revised: 01/22/2022] [Accepted: 03/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Plasmids are important vectors for the spread of genes among diverse populations of bacteria. However, there is no standard method to determine the rate at which they spread horizontally via conjugation. Here, we compare commonly used methods on simulated and experimental data, and show that the resulting conjugation rate estimates often depend strongly on the time of measurement, the initial population densities, or the initial ratio of donor to recipient populations. Differences in growth rate, e.g. induced by sub-lethal antibiotic concentrations or temperature, can also significantly bias conjugation rate estimates. We derive a new 'end-point' measure to estimate conjugation rates, which extends the well-known Simonsen method to include the effects of differences in population growth and conjugation rates from donors and transconjugants. We further derive analytical expressions for the parameter range in which these approximations remain valid. We present an easy to use R package and web interface which implement both new and previously existing methods to estimate conjugation rates. The result is a set of tools and guidelines for accurate and comparable measurement of plasmid conjugation rates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jana S Huisman
- Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland; Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Fabienne Benz
- Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Sarah J N Duxbury
- Laboratory of Genetics, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | | | - Alex R Hall
- Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Egil A J Fischer
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
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Oelschlaeger P. β-Lactamases: Sequence, Structure, Function, and Inhibition. Biomolecules 2021; 11:986. [PMID: 34356610 PMCID: PMC8301796 DOI: 10.3390/biom11070986] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2021] [Accepted: 07/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
β-Lactams were the first class of antibiotics to be discovered and the second to be introduced into the clinic in the 1940s [...].
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Oelschlaeger
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA 91766, USA
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The Impact of Direct-Fed Microbials and Phytogenic Feed Additives on Prevalence and Transfer of Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase Genes in Broiler Chicken. Microorganisms 2020; 8:microorganisms8030322. [PMID: 32110912 PMCID: PMC7142867 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms8030322] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2019] [Revised: 02/24/2020] [Accepted: 02/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Poultry frequently account for the highest prevalence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae in livestock. To investigate the impact of direct-fed microbials (DFM) and phytobiotic feed additives on prevalence and conjugation of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae, an animal trial was conducted. Lactobacillus agilis LA73 and Lactobacillus salivarius LS1 and two commercial phytogenic feed additives (consisting of carvacrol, cinnamaldehyde, and eugenol) were used as feed additives either alone or as a combination of DFM and phytogenic feed additive. An ESBL-producing E.coli donor and a potentially pathogenic Salmonella Typhimurium recipient were inoculated at 5 × 109 cells/mL in cecal contents from 2-week-old broilers. Conjugation frequencies were determined after 4 h aerobic co-incubation at 37 °C and corrected for the impact of the sample matrix on bacterial growth of donor and recipient. Surprisingly, indigenous Enterobacteriaceae acted as recipients instead of the anticipated Salmonella recipient. The observed increase in conjugation frequency was most obvious in the groups fed the combinations of DFM and phytogenic product, but merely up to 0.6 log units. Further, cecal samples were examined for ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae on five consecutive days in broilers aged 27–31 days. All samples derived from animals fed the experimental diet showed lower ESBL-prevalence than the control. It is concluded that Lactobacillus spp. and essential oils may help to reduce the prevalence of ESBL-harboring plasmids in broilers, while the effect on horizontal gene transfer is less obvious.
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Buberg ML, Witsø IL, L'Abée-Lund TM, Wasteson Y. Zinc and Copper Reduce Conjugative Transfer of Resistance Plasmids from Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase-Producing Escherichia coli. Microb Drug Resist 2020; 26:842-849. [PMID: 31951514 DOI: 10.1089/mdr.2019.0388] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
The present work addresses the effect of excess levels of ZnCl2 and CuSO4 in the growth medium on the conjugative transfer of plasmids carrying the antibiotic resistance gene blaCMY-2 from extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli. Norwegian poultry are not treated prophylactically with antibiotics, but still, ESBL-producing E. coli are found in the chicken populations. Chickens receive higher amounts of Zn and Cu than their biological need, and several metals have been shown to act as drivers of antimicrobial resistance. In the present study, ESBL-producing E. coli strains collected from retail chicken meat were mated in broth containing various concentrations of ZnCl2 and CuSO4. Manual counting of transconjugants showed that ZnCl2 and CuSO4 reduced the conjugation frequency between E. coli strains in a concentration-dependent manner. Quantitative real-time PCR analyses showed that the presence of ZnCl2 and CuSO4 in the growth media reduced expression of the conjugation genes traB and nikB. By propagating monocultures over several generations, it was found that the blaCMY-2 plasmids remained stable in the recipient strains. Together the results show that exposure of ESBL-producing E. coli to Zn and Cu reduce horizontal transfer of the blaCMY-2 resistance plasmid by reducing expression of genes involved in conjugation in the plasmid donor strain.
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Affiliation(s)
- May Linn Buberg
- Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Oslo, Norway
| | - Ingun Lund Witsø
- Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Oslo, Norway
| | - Trine Marie L'Abée-Lund
- Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Oslo, Norway
| | - Yngvild Wasteson
- Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Oslo, Norway
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