The abundance of antibiotic resistance genes in human guts has correlation to the consumption of antibiotics in animal

Abstract

Increasing evidence has accumulated to support that the human gut is a reservoir for antibiotic resistance genes. We previously identified more than 1000 genes displaying high similarity with known antibiotic resistance genes in the human gut gene set generated from the Chinese, Danish, and Spanish populations. Here, first, we add our new understanding of antibiotic resistance genes in the US and the Japanese populations; next, we describe the structure of a vancomycin-resistant operon in a Danish sample; and finally, we provide discussions on the correlation of the abundance of resistance genes in human gut with the antibiotic consumption in human medicine and in animal husbandry. These results, combined with those we published previously, provide comprehensive insights into the antibiotic resistance genes in the human gut microbiota at a population level.