Antimicrobial Resistance in Environments
A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Antimicrobial Agents and Resistance".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2027
Editors
Interests: wastewater-based epidemiology; multilocus sequencing typing; antibiotic resistance genes; whole-genome sequencing; phylogenetic evolution
Interests: antibiotic resistance; bacteriology; molecular microbiology; genomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is recognized as one of the greatest global public health threats of the 21st century. While clinical settings have traditionally been the primary focus of AMR surveillance, increasing evidence highlights the critical role of environmental compartments in the emergence, persistence, dissemination, and evolution of antimicrobial resistance. Wastewater systems, surface waters, soils, sediments, wildlife, aquaculture environments, food production chains, and other anthropogenically impacted ecosystems act as important reservoirs and transmission pathways for antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, resistance genes, mobile genetic elements, and residual antimicrobial compounds.
Environmental surveillance has emerged as a powerful One Health approach for understanding AMR dynamics across human, animal, and environmental interfaces. Advances in molecular biology, genomics, metagenomics, wastewater-based epidemiology, and bioinformatics have significantly expanded our capacity to detect, characterize, and monitor resistance determinants in diverse environmental matrices.
This Special Issue aims to bring together original research articles, reviews, communications, and methodological studies addressing the occurrence, transmission, monitoring, risk assessment, and mitigation of AMR in environmental settings.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
* Environmental reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance;
* Wastewater-based surveillance and epidemiology;
* Resistome and mobilome characterization;
* Metagenomics and genomic epidemiology of AMR;
* Antimicrobial-resistant pathogens in aquatic and terrestrial environments;
* Mobile genetic elements and horizontal gene transfer;
* AMR in food production systems and aquaculture;
* Environmental dissemination of clinically relevant resistance genes;
* One Health approaches to AMR surveillance;
* Risk assessment and public health implications of environmental AMR;
* Emerging methodologies and technologies for AMR monitoring;
* Strategies for AMR mitigation and environmental management.
This Special Issue seeks to advance our understanding of the environmental dimensions of AMR and support evidence-based strategies for surveillance, preparedness, and public health protection.
Dr. Kayo Bianco
Dr. Olivier Chesneau
Dr. Ivson Cassiano de Oliveira Santos
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
- environmental surveillance
- wastewater-based epidemiology
- wastewater surveillance
- resistome
- mobilome
- metagenomics
- genomic epidemiology
- One Health
- antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs)
- environmental microbiology
- wastewater treatment plants
- emerging pathogens
- horizontal gene transfer
- public health surveillance
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
