Bioprospecting for β-lactam resistance genes using a metagenomics-guided strategy

Emergence of new antibiotic resistance bacteria poses a serious threat to human health, which is largely attributed to the evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). In this work, a metagenomics-guided strategy consisting of metagenomic analysis and function validation was proposed for rapidly identifying novel ARGs from hot spots of ARG dissemination, such as wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and animal feces. We used an antibiotic resistance gene database to annotate 76 putative β-lactam resistance genes from the metagenomes of sludge and chicken feces. Among these 76 candidate genes, 25 target genes that shared 40~70% amino acid identity to known β-lactamases were cloned by PCR from the metagenomes. Their resistances to four β-lactam antibiotics were further demonstrated. Furthermore, the validated ARGs were used as the reference sequences to identify novel ARGs in eight environmental samples, suggesting the necessity of re-examining the profiles of ARGs in environmental samples using the validated novel ARG sequences. This metagenomics-guided pipeline does not rely on the activity of ARGs during the initial screening process and may specifically select novel ARG sequences for function validation, which make it suitable for the high-throughput screening of novel ARGs from environmental metagenomes.