WIKIMEDIA, CDC/JJ FARMERViromes from a variety of environments harbor antibiotic resistance genes, according to a study published last month (November 24) in Environmental Pollution. The results suggest that bacteriophages—viruses that infect bacteria—may play a role in the transfer of genes that confer drug resistance to bacteria.
The study makes “a pretty strong case that antibiotic resistance genes really do exist in the virome,” said Andrew Singer of the UK Natural Environmental Research Council’s Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, who was not involved in the work.
“Any sort of research that can get us to learn more about the mechanisms of resistance is important,” microbiologist Maite Muniesa of the University of Barcelona, Spain, who did not participate in the study, told The Scientist.
Researchers at the University of Girona, Spain, scanned 33 viromes from raw sewage, human feces, pig feces, and marine and freshwater environments for evidence of antibiotic resistance genes. They found such genes in all the viromes analyzed, though their abundance varied.
In human-associated viromes, the team found relatively few ...
