National antibiotic consumption is strongly related to the prevalence of antibiotic resistance across bacterial clades

Summary: The impact of societal antibiotic consumption on the prevalence of antibiotic resistance across microbial taxa in natural environments has not yet been assessed at global scales. Here, I examine the prevalence of 155 antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in 300,209 bacterial genomes, from non-...

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Main Author: Stilianos Louca
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-02-01
Series:iScience
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004224029390
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author Stilianos Louca
author_facet Stilianos Louca
author_sort Stilianos Louca
collection DOAJ
description Summary: The impact of societal antibiotic consumption on the prevalence of antibiotic resistance across microbial taxa in natural environments has not yet been assessed at global scales. Here, I examine the prevalence of 155 antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in 300,209 bacterial genomes, from non-clinical non-human-associated terrestrial environments at over 9,600 locations in 44 countries. I then compare ARG prevalences to nationwide antibiotic consumption rates, distinguishing between different ARG types. I find that depending on country and ARG type, ARG prevalences can be extremely high; for example, the probability that a given quinolone resistance gene is present in a given strain in Thailand was estimated at 42%. Further, I find strong positive correlations between nationwide antibiotic consumption rates and mean ARG prevalences for nearly all ARG types. Thus, national antibiotic consumption leaves a signal on the prevalence of ARGs across the bacterial tree, even in non-clinical environments.
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spelling doaj-art-059c374b8a3e46e8b86a59bab549cea02025-01-18T05:05:04ZengElsevieriScience2589-00422025-02-01282111712National antibiotic consumption is strongly related to the prevalence of antibiotic resistance across bacterial cladesStilianos Louca0Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA; Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA; Corresponding authorSummary: The impact of societal antibiotic consumption on the prevalence of antibiotic resistance across microbial taxa in natural environments has not yet been assessed at global scales. Here, I examine the prevalence of 155 antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in 300,209 bacterial genomes, from non-clinical non-human-associated terrestrial environments at over 9,600 locations in 44 countries. I then compare ARG prevalences to nationwide antibiotic consumption rates, distinguishing between different ARG types. I find that depending on country and ARG type, ARG prevalences can be extremely high; for example, the probability that a given quinolone resistance gene is present in a given strain in Thailand was estimated at 42%. Further, I find strong positive correlations between nationwide antibiotic consumption rates and mean ARG prevalences for nearly all ARG types. Thus, national antibiotic consumption leaves a signal on the prevalence of ARGs across the bacterial tree, even in non-clinical environments.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004224029390natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyclinical microbiology
spellingShingle Stilianos Louca
National antibiotic consumption is strongly related to the prevalence of antibiotic resistance across bacterial clades
iScience
natural sciences
biological sciences
microbiology
clinical microbiology
title National antibiotic consumption is strongly related to the prevalence of antibiotic resistance across bacterial clades
title_full National antibiotic consumption is strongly related to the prevalence of antibiotic resistance across bacterial clades
title_fullStr National antibiotic consumption is strongly related to the prevalence of antibiotic resistance across bacterial clades
title_full_unstemmed National antibiotic consumption is strongly related to the prevalence of antibiotic resistance across bacterial clades
title_short National antibiotic consumption is strongly related to the prevalence of antibiotic resistance across bacterial clades
title_sort national antibiotic consumption is strongly related to the prevalence of antibiotic resistance across bacterial clades
topic natural sciences
biological sciences
microbiology
clinical microbiology
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004224029390
work_keys_str_mv AT stilianoslouca nationalantibioticconsumptionisstronglyrelatedtotheprevalenceofantibioticresistanceacrossbacterialclades