Cefiderocol resistance genes identified in environmental samples using functional metagenomics
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2026

Antibiotic resistance poses a global public health threat, which can originate from the transfer of environmental antibiotic resistance genes to pathogenic bacteria, as highlighted by the "One Health" framework. Cefiderocol is a siderophore cephalosporin recently introduced in clinical practice which displays a "Trojan Horse" mechanism, utilizing bacterial iron transportation systems for cell entry. Although it is only used as a last-line antibiotic, resistance has already been observed in clinical isolates. Yet, cefiderocol resistance genes are difficult to monitor as resistance mechanisms remain mostly undescribed in antibiotic resistance gene databases and therefore uncharacterized in the environment. To address this critical gap, we applied functional metagenomics to diverse environmental samples (wastewater, freshwater, and soil) from France, Germany, Sweden, and Pakistan. Four antibiotic resistant genes were identified as responsible for increased cefiderocol minimum inhibitory concentrations to clinically-relevant levels (ranging from 1 to 4 mg/l), including ꞵ-lactamases (VEB-3, OXA-372 homolog, and YbxI homolog) and a partial penicillin-binding protein homolog. None of these genes had been previously reported as a cefiderocol resistance gene. Three out of four had their closest homologs in pathogenic bacteria. The blaVEB-3 gene was associated with a mobile genetic element and distributed across all wastewater metagenomes analyzed in this study. We therefore highlight the critical need for functional metagenomics, to characterize previously uncharacterized last-line antibiotic resistance mechanisms which will be used to enrich antibiotic resistance gene databases and thereby improving antibiotic resistance surveillance in all One Health compartments.

cefiderocol

functional metagenomics

antibiotic resistance

Författare

Rémi Gschwind

Université Paris Descartes

Mehdi Bonnet

Université Paris Descartes

Hôpital Beaujon

Anna Abramova

Göteborgs universitet

Chalmers, Life sciences, Systembiologi

Víctor Hugo Jarquín-Díaz

Deutsches Zentrum für Herz-Kreislauf-Forschung e. V.

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Marcus Wenne

Chalmers, Life sciences, Systembiologi

Göteborgs universitet

Ulrike Löber

Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Deutsches Zentrum für Herz-Kreislauf-Forschung e. V.

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

Nicolas Godron

Université Paris Descartes

Ioannis D. Kampouris

Technische Universität Dresden

Faina Tskhay

Technische Universität Dresden

Fouzia Nahid

Quaid-i-Azam University

Chloé Debroucker

Université Paris Descartes

Maximilien Bui-Hai

Université Paris Descartes

Inès El Aiba

Université Paris Descartes

Uli Klümper

Technische Universität Dresden

Thomas U. Berendonk

Technische Universität Dresden

Sofia K. Forslund

Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Structural and Computational Biology Unit

Deutsches Zentrum für Herz-Kreislauf-Forschung e. V.

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

Rabaab Zahra

Quaid-i-Azam University

Johan Bengtsson Palme

Göteborgs universitet

Chalmers, Life sciences, Systembiologi

Etienne Ruppé

Hôpital Bichat-Claude-Bernard AP-HP

Université Paris Descartes

ISME Journal

1751-7362 (ISSN) 1751-7370 (eISSN)

Vol. 20 1 wrag010

Etablering av normalnivåer för antibiotikaresistens i olika miljöer för miljöövervakning

Vetenskapsrådet (VR) (2019-00299), 2022-05-01 -- 2023-12-31.

Övervakning av framtidens antibiotikaresistens genom karaktärisering av nya resistensgener i miljön

Vetenskapsrådet (VR) (2023-01721), 2023-12-01 -- 2026-11-30.

Framtidens patogener och resistensgener

Stiftelsen för Strategisk forskning (SSF) (FFL21-0174), 2022-08-01 -- 2027-12-31.

Ämneskategorier (SSIF 2025)

Infektionsmedicin

Mikrobiologi inom det medicinska området

Mikrobiologi

DOI

10.1093/ismejo/wrag010

PubMed

41603547

Relaterade dataset

RemiGSC/Mgf_FDC: Cefiderocol resistance studied using Functional metagenomics [dataset]

URI: https://zenodo.org/records/15487633

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2026-02-27