Mobile Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Probiotics

Overview

Journal Antibiotics (Basel)

Specialty Pharmacology

Date 2021 Nov 27

PMID 34827225

Citations 24

Authors

Adrienn Greta Toth

Istvan Csabai

Maura Fiona Judge

Gergely Maroti

Agnes Becsei

Sandor Spisak

Norbert Solymosi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Even though people worldwide tend to consume probiotic products for their beneficial health effects on a daily basis, recently, concerns were outlined regarding the uptake and potential intestinal colonisation of the bacteria that they carry. These bacteria are capable of executing horizontal gene transfer (HGT) which facilitates the movement of various genes, including antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), among the donor and recipient bacterial populations. Within our study, 47 shotgun sequencing datasets deriving from various probiotic samples (isolated strains and metagenomes) were bioinformatically analysed. We detected more than 70 ARGs, out of which mutants conferring resistance to rifampicin, and potentially extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) coding were the most common. Numerous ARGs were associated with integrated mobile genetic elements, plasmids or phages promoting the HGT. Our findings raise clinical and public health concerns as the consumption of probiotic products may lead to the transfer of ARGs to human gut bacteria.

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