Metagenomic Insights into Chicken Gut Antibiotic Resistomes and Microbiomes
Jintao Yang, Cuihong Tong, Danyu Xiao, Longfei Xie, Ruonan Zhao, Zhipeng Huo, Ziyun Tang, Jie Hao, Zhenling Zeng, Wenguang Xiong
Abstract
The prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes in the chicken gut environment poses a serious threat to human health; however, we lack a comprehensive exploration of antibiotic resistomes and microbiomes in the chicken gut environment. The results of this study demonstrate the diversity and abundance of antibiotic resistance genes and flora in the chicken gut environment and identify a variety of potential hosts carrying antibiotic resistance genes. Further analysis showed that mobile genetic elements were linearly correlated with antibiotic resistance genes abundance, implying that we should pay attention to the role played by mobile genetic elements in antibiotic resistance genes transmission. We established a reference genome of gut antibiotic resistance genes in chickens, which will help to rationalize the use of drugs in poultry farming.