Antibiotic resistance has become a major concern for human and animal health, as therapeutic alternatives to treat multidrug-resistant microorganisms are rapidly dwindling. The problem is compounded by low investment in antibiotic research and lack of new effective antimicrobial drugs on the market. Exploring environmental antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) will help us to better understand bacterial resistance mechanisms, which may be the key to identifying new drug targets. Because most environment-associated microorganisms are not yet cultivable, culture-independent techniques are essential to determine which organisms are present in a given environmental sample and allow the assessment and utilization of the genetic wealth they represent. Metagenomics represents a powerful tool to achieve these goals using sequence-based and functional-based approaches. Functional metagenomic approaches are particularly well suited to the identification new ARGs from natural environments because, unlike sequence-based approaches, they do not require previous knowledge of these genes. This review discusses functional metagenomics-based ARG research and describes new possibilities for surveying the resistome in environmental samples.
Unraveling the diversity of antibiotic resistance elements on the environment could not only identify new genes and mechanisms in which bacteria can resist to antibiotics, but also contribute to biotechnology processes, such as in bioremediation.
Myxobacteria are a group of eubacteria classified in the order Myxococcales, further subdivided into two suborders and eight families. These unique microorganisms exhibit distinctive social behavior and morphogenetic characteristics, such as the ability to form myxospores and fruiting bodies. Cellular aggregation is an important feature that allows these microorganisms to adapt to almost every environment.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.