Aberrant microbiomes are associated with increased antibiotic resistance gene load in hybrid mice
Journal article, 2024

Antibiotic resistance is a priority public health problem resulting from eco-evolutionary dynamics within microbial communities and their interaction at a mammalian host interface or geographical scale. The links between mammalian host genetics, bacterial gut community, and antimicrobial resistance gene (ARG) content must be better understood in natural populations inhabiting heterogeneous environments. Hybridization, the interbreeding of genetically divergent populations, influences different components of the gut microbial communities. However, its impact on bacterial traits such as antibiotic resistance is unknown. Here, we present that hybridization might shape bacterial communities and ARG occurrence. We used amplicon sequencing to study the gut microbiome and to predict ARG composition in natural populations of house mice (Mus musculus). We compared gastrointestinal bacterial and ARG diversity, composition, and abundance across a gradient of pure and hybrid genotypes in the European House Mouse Hybrid Zone. We observed an increased overall predicted richness of ARG in hybrid mice. We found bacteria-ARG interactions by their co-abundance and detected phenotypes of extreme abundances in hybrid mice at the level of specific bacterial taxa and ARGs, mainly multidrug resistance genes. Our work suggests that mammalian host genetic variation impacts the gut microbiome and chromosomal ARGs. However, it raises further questions on how the mammalian host genetics impact ARGs via microbiome dynamics or environmental covariates.

antimicrobial resistance gene

microbiome

mice

hybridization

Author

Victor Hugo Jarquin-Diaz

Freie Universität Berlin

Charité University Medicine Berlin

Leibniz Inst Zoo & Wildlife Res IZW

Humboldt University of Berlin

Max Delbruck Ctr Mol Med Helmholtz Assoc MDC

Expt & Clin Res Ctr

Susana Carolina Martins Ferreira

Humboldt University of Berlin

University of Vienna

Alice Balard

Leibniz Inst Zoo & Wildlife Res IZW

Humboldt University of Berlin

Ludovit Dureje

Czech Academy of Sciences

Milos Macholan

Czech Academy of Sciences

Jaroslav Pialek

Czech Academy of Sciences

Johan Bengtsson Palme

University of Gothenburg

Chalmers, Life Sciences, Systems and Synthetic Biology

Stephanie Kramer-Schadt

Technische Universität Berlin

Leibniz Inst Zoo & Wildlife Res IZW

Sofia Kirke Forslund-Startceva

Humboldt University of Berlin

German Center for Cardiovascular Research DZHK

Expt & Clin Res Ctr

Charité University Medicine Berlin

Freie Universität Berlin

Max Delbruck Ctr Mol Med Helmholtz Assoc MDC

Emanuel Heitlinger

Leibniz Inst Zoo & Wildlife Res IZW

Humboldt University of Berlin

ISME COMMUNICATIONS

2730-6151 (eISSN)

Vol. 4 1 ycae053

EMBARK: Establishing a Monitoring Baseline for Antibiotic Resistance in Key environments

Swedish Research Council (VR) (2019-00299), 2022-05-01 -- 2023-12-31.

Subject Categories

Microbiology

Bioinformatics (Computational Biology)

Microbiology in the medical area

DOI

10.1093/ismeco/ycae053

PubMed

38800129

More information

Latest update

6/26/2024