High Throughput Screening of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Gram-Negative Seafood Bacteria

From a global view of antimicrobial resistance over different sectors, seafood and the marine environment are often considered as potential reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and mobile genetic elements (MGEs); however, there are few studies and sparse results on this sector. This study aims to provide new data and insights regarding the content of resistance markers in various seafood samples and sources, and therefore the potential exposure to humans in a global One Health approach. An innovative high throughput qPCR screening was developed and validated in order to simultaneously investigate the presence of 41 ARGs and 33 MGEs including plasmid replicons, integrons, and insertion sequences in Gram-negative bacteria. Analysis of 268 seafood isolates from the bacterial microflora of cod (n = 24), shellfish (n = 66), flat fishes (n = 53), shrimp (n = 10), and horse mackerel (n = 115) show the occurrence of sul-1, ant(3″)-Ia, aph(3′)-Ia, strA, strB, dfrA1, qnrA, and blaCTX-M-9 genes in Pseudomonas spp., Providencia spp., Klebsiella spp., Proteus spp., and Shewanella spp. isolates and the presence of MGEs in all bacterial species investigated. We found that the occurrence of MGE may be associated with the seafood type and the environmental, farming, and harvest conditions. Moreover, even if MGE were detected in half of the seafood isolates investigated, association with ARG was only identified for twelve isolates. The results corroborate the hypothesis that the incidence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria (ARB) and ARG decreases with increasing distance from potential sources of fecal contamination. This unique and original high throughput micro-array designed for the screening of ARG and MGE in Gram-negative bacteria could be easily implementable for monitoring antimicrobial resistance gene markers in diverse contexts.

Keyword(s)

antimicrobial resistance genes, mobile genetic elements, seafood bacteria, Gram-negative species, high throughput qPCR, micro-array

Full Text

FilePagesSizeAccess
Publisher's official version
141 Mo
Supplementary Material
-694 Ko
How to cite
Delannoy Sabine, Hoffer Corine, Youf Raphaëlle, Dauvergne Emilie, Webb Hattie E., Brauge Thomas, Tran Mai-Lan, Midelet Graziella, Granier Sophie A., Haenni Marisa, Fach Patrick, Brisabois Anne (2022). High Throughput Screening of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Gram-Negative Seafood Bacteria. Microorganisms. 10 (6). 1225 (14p.). https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10061225, https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00777/88912/

Copy this text