Antimicrobial Chemicals Are Associated with Elevated Antibiotic Resistance Genes in the Indoor Dust Microbiome.
Antibiotic resistance is increasingly widespread, largely due to human influence. Here, we explore the relationship between antibiotic resistance genes and the antimicrobial chemicals triclosan, triclocarban, and methyl-, ethyl-, propyl-, and butylparaben in the dust microbiome. Dust samples from a mixed-use athletic and educational facility were subjected to microbial and chemical analyses using a combination of 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, shotgun metagenome sequencing, and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. The dust resistome was characterized by identifying antibiotic resistance genes annotated in the Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD) from the metagenomes of each sample using the Short, Better Representative Extract Data set (ShortBRED). The three most highly abundant antibiotic resistance genes were tet(W), blaSRT-1, and erm(B). The complete dust resistome was then compared against the measured concentrations of antimicrobial chemicals, which for triclosan ranged from 0.5 to 1970 ng/g dust. We observed six significant positive associations between the concentration of an antimicrobial chemical and the relative abundance of an antibiotic resistance gene, including one between the ubiquitous antimicrobial triclosan and erm(X), a 23S rRNA methyltransferase implicated in resistance to several antibiotics. This study is the first to look for an association between antibiotic resistance genes and antimicrobial chemicals in dust.
Erica M
EM
Hartmann
Roxana
R
Hickey
Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health , Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States.|Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, United States.
Tiffany
T
Hsu
Clarisse M
CM
Betancourt Román
Biodesign Center for Environmental Security and Global Security Initiative, The Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University , Tempe, Arizona 85287, United States.
Jing
J
Chen
Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health , Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States.
Randall
R
Schwager
Jeff
J
Kline
G Z
GZ
Brown
Biodesign Center for Environmental Security and Global Security Initiative, The Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University , Tempe, Arizona 85287, United States.
Rolf U
RU
Halden
Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health , Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States.|Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, United States.
Curtis
C
Huttenhower
Jessica L
JL
Green
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial / Q000235:genetics; D004391:Dust; D006801:Humans; D064307:Microbiota / Q000187:drug effects; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D004391:Dust; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S