Horizontally acquired antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in bacteria are highly mobile and have been ranked as principal risk resistance determinants.However, the transfer network of the mobile resistome and the forces driving mobile ARG transfer are largely unknown.Here, we present the whole profile of the mobile resistome in 23,425 bacterial genomes and explore the effects of phylogeny and ecology on the recent transfer (≥99% nudeotide identity) of mobile ARGs.We found that mobile ARGs are mainly present in four bacterial phyla and are significantly enriched in Proteobacteria.The recent mobile ARG transfer network,which comprises 703 bacterial species and 16,859 species pairs, is shaped by the bacterial phylogeny, while an ecological barrier also exists, especially when interrogating bacteria colonizing different human body sites.Phylogeny is still a driving force for the transfer of mobile ARGs between farm animals and the human gut, and, interestingly, the mobile ARGs that are shared between the human and animal gut microbiomes are also harbored by diverse human pathogens.Taking these results together, we suggest that phylogeny and ecology are complementary in shaping the bacterial mobile resistome and exert synergistic effects on the development of antibiotic resistance in human pathogens.
Yongfei Hu Xi Yang Jing Li Na Lv Fei Liu Jun Wu Ivan Y.C.Lin Na Wu Bart C.Weimer George F.Gao Yulan Liu Baoli Zhu
CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Aca CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Aca CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Aca Department of Gastroenterology, Peking University Peoples Hospital, Beijing, China Department of Population Health and Reproduction, 100K Pathogen Genome Project, School of Veterinary CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Aca