A review on the role of genomics, various environmental factors, biochemical and physiological determinants and biofilms responsible for the development of antibiotics resistance in microbes

Abstract

Antibiotic (antimicrobial drug), an organic compound causes a sterling impact on microbes by inducing cellular responses. For years, genetic changes were thought to be the only active influencer in development of microbial resistance against antibiotics. With advancement many other factors came up to mutually participate in onset of microbial resistance. This review article is focused on identifying various other possible microbial antibiotic resistance factors. Since there has been identified multitude of factors, the crucial being the horizontal gene transfer (HGT), genetic changes (point mutations), development of biofilms acting as barrier, physiological factors i.e. efflux pump; most effective impact factor, environmental factors; natural selection pressure, metal contamination, anthropogenic activities cooperating specifically with farms serve as vectors to transfer pathogens or their resistance genes to human directly and indirectly through livestock, dairy products consumption, and biochemical responses in terms of mortality and morbidity, working in correlation as a stimulator to each other. To develop a strong antibiotic, it necessitates the knowledge of the evolutionary backgrounds of the microbe. This would help in developing next generation drugs way before the outbreak of next epidemic or pandemic. This requires the development of a gene bank of total resistant genes of pathogens of concern known as resistome. Beneficial bioinformatics databases are in progress to provide useful data in this regard e.g. Antibiotic Resistance Genes Database (ARDB) gathers extensive publicly available info on microbial resistance. Comprehensive Antibiotic Research Database (CARD) generates molecular sequencing data, Antibiotic Resistance Ontology (ARO) and rapidly identifies antibiotic resistance genes in genome.