The global distribution and environmental drivers of the soil antibiotic resistome
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Date
Authors
Delgado‑Baquerizo, Manuel
Hu, Hang‑Wei
Maestre, Fernando T.
Guerra, Carlos A.
Eisenhauer, Nico
Eldridge, David J.
Zhu, Yong‑Guan
Chen, Qing‑Lin
Trivedi, Pankaj
Du, Shuai
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC
Abstract
BACKGROUND : Little is known about the global distribution and environmental drivers of key microbial functional
traits such as antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Soils are one of Earth’s largest reservoirs of ARGs, which are integral
for soil microbial competition, and have potential implications for plant and human health. Yet, their diversity and
global patterns remain poorly described. Here, we analyzed 285 ARGs in soils from 1012 sites across all continents and
created the first global atlas with the distributions of topsoil ARGs.
RESULTS : We show that ARGs peaked in high latitude cold and boreal forests. Climatic seasonality and mobile genetic
elements, associated with the transmission of antibiotic resistance, were also key drivers of their global distribution.
Dominant ARGs were mainly related to multidrug resistance genes and efflux pump machineries. We further pinpointed
the global hotspots of the diversity and proportions of soil ARGs.
CONCLUSIONS : Together, our work provides the foundation for a better understanding of the ecology and global distribution
of the environmental soil antibiotic resistome.
Description
DATA AVAILABILITY : All the materials, raw data, and protocols used in the article are available upon request and without restriction. The data used in this article are available from Figshare (https:// figsh are. com/s/ 5640a 4e375 272e4 eebf1).
ADDITIONAL FILE 1: SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE 1. Extrapolation of uncertainties associated with the global survey used in this study. SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE 2. Main structure for the a priori structural equation model used in this study. SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE 3. Structural equation models assessing the direct and indirect effects of environmental factors on the proportion (A) and richness (B) of ARGs in natural ecosystems only (i.e. croplands excluded, n = 802). SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE 4. Global precipitation (A) and temperature (B) seasonality maps used in our study (https:// www. world clim. org/ data/ index. html). SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 1. List of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) mobile genetic elements (MGEs) considered in this study. SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 2. Biomes included in this study. The biome classification was done based on vegetation field information and climatic information from the Köppen classification16. SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 3. Environmental factors included in our structural equation model. SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 4. Standardized direct effects of SEM on the proportion of soil ARGs. SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 5. Standardized direct effects of SEM on the richness of soil ARGs.
ADDITIONAL FILE 1: SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE 1. Extrapolation of uncertainties associated with the global survey used in this study. SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE 2. Main structure for the a priori structural equation model used in this study. SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE 3. Structural equation models assessing the direct and indirect effects of environmental factors on the proportion (A) and richness (B) of ARGs in natural ecosystems only (i.e. croplands excluded, n = 802). SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE 4. Global precipitation (A) and temperature (B) seasonality maps used in our study (https:// www. world clim. org/ data/ index. html). SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 1. List of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) mobile genetic elements (MGEs) considered in this study. SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 2. Biomes included in this study. The biome classification was done based on vegetation field information and climatic information from the Köppen classification16. SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 3. Environmental factors included in our structural equation model. SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 4. Standardized direct effects of SEM on the proportion of soil ARGs. SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 5. Standardized direct effects of SEM on the richness of soil ARGs.
Keywords
Antibiotic resistance, Global scale, Mobile genetic elements, Human health, Global change, SDG-03: Good health and well-being, Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs)
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Delgado‑Baquerizo, M., Hu, H.-W., Maestre, F.T. et al. 2022, 'The global distribution and environmental drivers of the soil antibiotic resistome', Microbiome, vol. 10, no. 219, pp. 1-14. DOI : 10.1186/s40168-022-01405-w.