Herbicide Selection Promotes Antibiotic Resistance in Soil Microbiomes

Overview

Journal Mol Biol Evol

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialty Biology

Date 2021 Feb 16

PMID 33592098

Citations 31

Authors

Hanpeng Liao

Xi Li

Qiue Yang

Yudan Bai

Peng Cui

Chang Wen

Chen Liu

Zhi Chen

Jiahuan Tang

Jiangang Che

Zhen Yu

Stefan Geisen

Shungui Zhou

Ville-Petri Friman

Yong-Guan Zhu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Herbicides are one of the most widely used chemicals in agriculture. While they are known to be harmful to nontarget organisms, the effects of herbicides on the composition and functioning of soil microbial communities remain unclear. Here we show that application of three widely used herbicides-glyphosate, glufosinate, and dicamba-increase the prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in soil microbiomes without clear changes in the abundance, diversity and composition of bacterial communities. Mechanistically, these results could be explained by a positive selection for more tolerant genotypes that acquired several mutations in previously well-characterized herbicide and ARGs. Moreover, herbicide exposure increased cell membrane permeability and conjugation frequency of multidrug resistance plasmids, promoting ARG movement between bacteria. A similar pattern was found in agricultural soils across 11 provinces in China, where herbicide application, and the levels of glyphosate residues in soils, were associated with increased ARG and MGE abundances relative to herbicide-free control sites. Together, our results show that herbicide application can enrich ARGs and MGEs by changing the genetic composition of soil microbiomes, potentially contributing to the global antimicrobial resistance problem in agricultural environments.

Citing Articles

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