“…Many of the factors involved in the host–microbe interactions of gut-mediated HGT are not yet understood ( Stecher et al, 2012 ; Ott et al, 2020 ). Limited in vivo studies have been conducted to determine the roles of factors such as host immunity, antibiotic treatment status, gut environmental conditions, and secretory molecules in the interactions of microbial HGT ( Klimuszko et al, 1989 ; Thomas and Nielsen, 2005 ; Diaz et al, 2012 ; Stecher et al, 2012 ; Huddleston, 2014 ; Machado and Sommer, 2014 ; Getino et al, 2015 ; Zeng and Lin, 2017 ; Devanga Ragupathi et al, 2019 ; Ott et al, 2020 ). While there have been many publications reporting the transfer of AR plasmids in vitro , often in the context of soil or wastewater, there has been a stark lack of experiments that demonstrate the interactions of these bacteria in vivo ( Macuch et al, 1967 ; Rang et al, 1996 ; Gevers et al, 2003 ; Card et al, 2017 ; Benz et al, 2020 ).…”