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Impact factors of the accumulation, migration and spread of antibiotic resistance in the environment

Environmental Geochemistry and Health volume 43, pages 1741–1758 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is a great concern, which leads to global public health risks and ecological and environmental risks. The presence of antibiotic-resistant genes and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment exacerbates the risk of spreading antibiotic resistance. Among them, horizontal gene transfer is an important mode in the spread of antibiotic resistance genes, and it is one of the reasons that the antibiotic resistance pollution has become increasingly serious. At the same time, free antibiotic resistance genes and resistance gene host bacterial also exist in the natural environment. They can not only affect horizontal gene transfer, but can also migrate and aggregate among environmental media in many ways and then continue to affect the proliferate and transfer of antibiotic resistance genes. All this shows the seriousness of antibiotic resistance pollution. Therefore, in this review, we reveal the sensitive factors affecting the distribution and spread of antibiotic resistance through three aspects: the influencing factors of horizontal gene transfer, the host bacteria of resistance genes and the migration of antibiotic resistance between environmental media. This review reveals the huge role of environmental migration in the spread of antibiotic resistance, and the environmental behavior of antibiotic resistance deserves wider attention. Meanwhile, extracellular antibiotic resistance genes and intracellular antibiotic resistance genes play different roles, so they should be studied separately.

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Fig. 1

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Acknowledgements

Thanks for the Support of Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Coal-based Greenhouse Gas Control and Utilization (2019B003).

Funding

This study was funded by Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Coal-based Greenhouse Gas Control and Utilization (2019B003)

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Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221000, Jiangsu, China

    Zibo Lin, Lai Zhou, Sen Cheng, Xu Qu, Ping Lu & Qiyan Feng

  2. Department of Construction Equipment and Municipal Engineering, Jiangsu Vocational Institute of Architectural Technology, Xuzhou, 221000, Jiangsu, China

    Tao Yuan

  3. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Coal-based Greenhouse Gas Control and Utilization, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221008, China

    Zibo Lin, Tao Yuan, Lai Zhou, Sen Cheng, Xu Qu, Ping Lu & Qiyan Feng

  4. Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Building Energy Saving and Construct Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Tao Yuan

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  1. Zibo Lin
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Lin, Z., Yuan, T., Zhou, L. et al. Impact factors of the accumulation, migration and spread of antibiotic resistance in the environment. Environ Geochem Health 43, 1741–1758 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-020-00759-0

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Keywords

  • Antibiotic
  • Resistance
  • Antibiotic resistance gene
  • Antibiotic resistance bacteria
  • Environmental migration
  • Horizontal gene transfer