Horizontal Gene Transfer of Antibiotic Resistance from Acinetobacter baylyi to Escherichia coli on Lettuce and Subsequent Antibiotic Resistance Transmission to the Gut Microbiome
Marlène Maeusli, Bosul Lee, Sarah Miller, Zeferino Reyna, Peggy Lu, Jun Yan, Amber Ulhaq, Nicholas Skandalis, Brad Spellberg, Brian Luna
Abstract
Previous efforts have correlated antibiotic-fed livestock and meat products with respective antibiotic resistance genes, but virtually no research has been conducted on the transmission of antibiotic resistance from plant foods to the mammalian gut (C. S. Hölzel, J. L. Tetens, and K. Schwaiger, Pathog Dis 15:671–688, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1089/fpd.2018.2501 ; C. M. Liu et al., mBio 9:e00470-19, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00470-18 ; B. Spellberg et al., NAM Perspectives, 2016, https://doi.org/10.31478/201606d ; J. O’Neill, Antimicrobials in agriculture and the environment, 2015; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Antibiotic resistance threats in the United States, 2019). Here, we sought to determine if horizontal transmission of antibiotic resistance genes can occur between lettuce and the mammalian gut microbiome, using a mouse model. Furthermore, we have created a new model to study horizontal gene transfer on lettuce leaves using an antibiotic-resistant transformant of A. baylyi (Ab zeoR ).