In:
Antibiotics, MDPI AG, Vol. 11, No. 6 ( 2022-05-24), p. 706-
Abstract:
Although pathogenic bacteria are the targets of antibiotics, these drugs also affect hundreds of commensal or mutualistic species. Moreover, the use of antibiotics is not only restricted to the treatment of infections but is also largely applied in agriculture and in prophylaxis. During this work, we tested the hypothesis that there is a correlation between the number and the genomic location of antibiotic resistance (AR) genes and virulence factor (VF) genes. We performed a comprehensive study of 16,632 reference bacterial genomes in which we identified and counted all orthologues of AR and VF genes in each of the locations: chromosomes, plasmids, or in both locations of the same genome. We found that, on a global scale, no correlation emerges. However, some categories of AR and VF genes co-occur preferentially, and in the mobilome, which supports the hypothesis that some bacterial pathogens are under selective pressure to be resistant to specific antibiotics, a fact that can jeopardize antimicrobial therapy for some human-threatening diseases.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2079-6382
DOI:
10.3390/antibiotics11060706
Language:
English
Publisher:
MDPI AG
Publication Date:
2022
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2681345-2
SSG:
15,3
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