Antibiotic Resistance Mechanisms: Ecological Implications

Dear Colleagues,

For many decades, antibiotic resistance has been considered something exclusively related to antibiotic therapy in humans and animals. Then, attention was paid to the spread of antibiotic resistance from human and animal reservoirs into the environment, but always as a risk to health, from a One Health perspective. However, the field of antibiotic resistance mechanisms in environmental bacteria has been seldom explored. Even in pristine environments, bacteria unrelated or scarcely related to infections harbor mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, many of them species-specific, suggesting that they are involved in functions unrelated to the use of therapeutic antibiotics. On the other hand, anthropogenic antibiotic pollution of the environment is a real problem, but the consequences for environmental microorganisms are poorly understood. The minimal ecodamaging concentration of antimicrobials, often in combination with other contaminants, from metals to fertilizers or herbicides, should be considered. The acquisition of mutational or acquired resistance via mobile genetic elements and the associated fitness cost may have unexpected consequences for Earth's ecosystem functioning, particularly involving primary producers and nodal bacteria in microbial networks. Indeed, contact with antibiotic-resistant bacteria from hospitals and farms may increase the likelihood of environmental bacteria acquiring antibiotic resistance. This contact is facilitated by the coalescence of microbiotas in particulate matter in soil and sediments. We have scarce knowledge of the global ecological consequences of antibiotic resistance in the environment, wild or anthropogenic (i. e. agriculture), which is likely dependent on geographical locations. Finally, this Special Issue should highlight the concept of the microbiosphere as the “sensitive skin” of the health of the planet, and how antibiotics and antibiotic resistance mechanisms contribute, in combination with other factors, to spoiling the conditions for a healthy biosphere that ensures the preservation of optimal human ecology. Biotechnological advances in biosensors, as well as the use of bioinformatics and big data technology, together with artificial intelligence, can contribute to applying successful interventions, both preventive and restorative ones.

Prof. Dr. Fernando Baquero
Guest Editor

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• antibiotic resistance in environmental bacteria
• antibiotics in the environment
• ecological consequences of antibiotic resistance
• antibiotic synergies and antagonisms with environmental pollutants
• biomarkers of antibiotic resistance in the environment