domingo, 18 de enero de 2015

What is a resistance gene? Ranking risk in resistomes : Nature Reviews Microbiology : Nature Publishing Group

What is a resistance gene? Ranking risk in resistomes : Nature Reviews Microbiology : Nature Publishing Group



What is a resistance gene? Ranking risk in resistomes

Nature Reviews Microbiology
 
13,
 
116–123
 
 
doi:10.1038/nrmicro3399
Published online
 

Abstract

Metagenomic studies have shown that antibiotic resistance genes are ubiquitous in the environment, which has led to the suggestion that there is a high risk that these genes will spread to bacteria that cause human infections. If this is true, estimating the real risk of dissemination of resistance genes from environmental reservoirs to human pathogens is therefore very difficult. In this Opinion article, we analyse the current definitions of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic resistance genes, and we describe the bottlenecks that affect the transfer of antibiotic resistance genes to human pathogens. We propose rules for estimating the risks associated with genes that are present in environmental resistomes by evaluating the likelihood of their introduction into human pathogens, and the consequences of such events for the treatment of infections.

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