The role of the natural environment in the emergence of antibiotic resistance in gram-negative bacteria.

By E. Wellington, A. Boxall, Paul C. Cross, E. Feil, W. Gaze, Peter Hawkey, Ashley S Johnson-Rollings, Davey L. Jones, N. M. Lee, Wilfred Otten and 2 more. Lancet. Infectious Diseases (Print), 2013

1,014 citations recorded by the source corpus.

During the past 10 years, multidrug-resistant Gram-negative Enterobacteriaceae have become a substantial challenge to infection control. It has been suggested by clinicians that the effectiveness of antibiotics is in such rapid decline that, depending on the pathogen concerned, their future utility can be measured in decades or even years. Unless the rise in antibiotic resistance can be reversed, we can expect to see a substantial rise in incurable infection and fatality in both developed and developing regions. Antibiotic resistance develops through complex interactions, with resistance arising by de-novo mutation under clinical antibiotic selection or frequently by acquisition of mobile genes that have evolved over time in bacteria in the environment. The reservoir of resistance genes in the environment is due to a mix of naturally occurring resistance and those present in animal and human waste and the selective effects of pollutants, which can co-select for mobile genetic elements carrying multiple resistant genes. Less attention has been given to how anthropogenic activity might be causing evolution of antibiotic resistance in the environment. Although the economics of the pharmaceutical industry continue to restrict investment in novel biomedical responses, action must be taken to avoid the conjunction of factors that promote evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance.

Subfields: Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Molecular Medicine, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4b3741a80b8063761c7b156a2ef00a6d6ebc9407

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

M. Gillings

In Molecular Medicine

M. Gillings

In Pollution

Citations in the corpus

Antibiotics in the Soil Environment—Degradation and Their Impact on Microbial Activity and Diversity (2019, background): “In addition, co-selection and expression of resistance genes on MGEs may promote the spread of ARGs, even between distantly related bacterial species (Wellington et al., 2013).”
Antibiotic resistance: a rundown of a global crisis (2018, background): “A number of resistant pathogens have been isolated from pre- and posttreatment sewage systems.(39,45)”
Integrons: Past, Present, and Future (2014, background): “It is now widely accepted that the natural environment is a recruitment ground for resistant organisms and potential opportunistic pathogens (121, 144, 213, 240).”
Urbanization and Disease Emergence: Dynamics at the Wildlife–Livestock–Human Interface (2017, background): “, driving antimicrobial resistance) [56,57], whilst host diversity, density, phylogenetic structure (ecological, physiological and genetic similarity), and immunocompetence and immunological history of individuals all play an important role in host–pathogen interactions [58,59].”
The Rising Tide of Antimicrobial Resistance in Aquaculture: Sources, Sinks and Solutions (2017, background): “This use of aquaculture sludge has numerous implications for the concentration and spread of AMR genes onto food crops and into the soil system [85].”
The global threat of antimicrobial resistance: science for intervention (2015, background): “The excessive use of antimicrobial agents to treat both humans and animals has also caused the accumulation of these compounds in the environment, and the impact of such accumulation on the emergence of antibiotic resistance should not be underrated [16].”
Environmental Escherichia coli: ecology and public health implications—a review (2017, background): “coli, including environmental strains, which is also of great concern for public health (Touchon et al. 2009; Wellington et al. 2013).”