KEYNOTE Environmental antibiotic resistome: sources and sink

Antibiotics have been widely used not only in humans but also in animals for growth promotion and infectious disease control. Antibiotic resistance is defined as the microbial ability to sustain and multiply in the presence of... [ view full abstract ]

Antibiotics have been widely used not only in humans but also in animals for growth promotion and infectious disease control. Antibiotic resistance is defined as the microbial ability to sustain and multiply in the presence of antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance is ancient and ubiquitous in environmental microbes, particularly soils where many antibiotics have been discovered so far, and this original resistance is viewed as intrinsic resistance. Nevertheless, the intensive use of antibiotics in humans and animals have undoubtedly increased the emergence and abundance of antibiotic resistance in the environment, and therefore threatening global human health. Numerous studies now have demonstrated that the amounts of antibiotics use and residual discharge into the environment is well correlated with the abundance of antibiotic resistance, and antibiotic resistance can spread via not only vertical gene transfer but also horizontal gene transfer (HGT), and eventually to human pathogens, and even the emergence of superbugs. In 2006 Pruden et al. explicitly proposed antibiotic resistance as emerging contaminants, and suggested that conventional environmental treatment systems were not designed to remove these emerging contaminants. This talk will first discuss the major sources of environmental antibiotic resistome-urban waste water system vs. intensive animal farming. Subsequently the talk will discuss the major pathways of the emission of antibiotic resistance genes to the environment (soil and water). Thirdly the talk will take China as an example to investigate the pollution status of antibiotic resistance genes in soils, rivers and estuaries. Finally, potential mitigation measures will be discussed. Throughout the talk, divers molecular tools and "omics" approaches characterizing the environmental antibiotic resistome will be highlighted.