title: The antibiotic resistome.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Antibiotics are essential for the treatment of bacterial infections and are among our most important drugs. Resistance has emerged to all classes of antibiotics in clinical use. Antibiotic resistance has, proven inevitable and very often it emerges rapidly after the introduction of a drug into the clinic. There is, therefore, a great interest in understanding the origins, scope and evolution of antibiotic resistance.
  
  
  METHODS
  The review discusses the concept of the antibiotic resistome, which is the collection of all genes that directly or indirectly contribute to antibiotic resistance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The review seeks to assemble current knowledge of the resistome concept as a means of understanding the totality of resistance and not just resistance in pathogenic bacteria.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The concept of the antibiotic resistome provides a framework for the study and understanding of how resistance emerges and evolves. Furthermore, the study of the resistome reveals strategies that can be applied in new antibiotic discoveries.
authors: McMaster University, M.G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Hamilton, ON, L8N 3Z5, Canada. wrightge@mcmaster.ca
authors: Gerard D
authors: GD
authors: Wright
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents