ABSTRACT
Effective monitoring of antibiotic resistance genes and their dissemination in environmental ecosystems has been hindered by the cost and efficiency of methods available for the task. We developed a method entitled the Diversity of Antibiotic Resistance genes and Transfer Elements-Quantitative Monitoring (DARTE-QM), a system implementing high-throughput sequencing to simultaneously sequence thousands of antibiotic resistant genes representing a full-spectrum of antibiotic resistance classes commonly seen in environmental systems. In this study, we demonstrated DARTE-QM by screening 662 antibiotic resistance genes within environmental samples originated from manure, soil, and animal feces, in addition to a mock-community used as a control to test performance. DARTE-QM offers a new approach to studying antibiotic resistance in environmental microbiomes, showing advantages in efficiency and the ability to scale for many samples. This method provides a means of data acquisition that will alleviate the obstacles that many researchers in this area currently face.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
Email: sdsmith{at}iastate.edu
Email: genase23{at}gmail.com
Email: nricker{at}uoguelph.ca
Email: fan.michelle.yang{at}gmail.com
Email: hinsa{at}grinnell.edu
Email: msoupir{at}iastate.edu