Antibiotic Resistance Genes in the Soil-Plant Ecosystem

抗生素耐药基因（Antibiotic resistance genes，ARGs）使细菌对抗生素产生耐药性，而具有ARGs的致病病原体会使抗生素治疗感染性疾病的效果降低，从而威胁公众健康。土壤是汞的主要环境储存库，在含汞土壤中种植的可食用作物有可能成为人类和以作物为食的牲畜的汞载体。在被引入农田土壤后，一些携带精氨酸的细菌将驻留在表层土壤中，并可能转移到植物表面，在那里它们可能被植物吸收。该项目旨在解决关于在土地施用化肥后ARGs如何在土壤中分布以及携带ARGs的细菌是否在植物内部和植物表面存活的知识差距。这项研究可以帮助确定植物作为向人类运输ARG的载体的重要性。 这方面的知识可以指导管理实践的发展，以防止或尽量减少可食用植物对ARGs的吸收，从而保护国家的粮食供应，以造福公众health.The本项目的目标是提高我们的理解机制，管理的命运和运输抗生素抗性基因（ARGs）在土壤-植物生态系统在田间条件下。该项目的研究目标有三个：1）鉴定遗传抗性基因（2）鉴定植物体内和植物表面内生和附生微生物群落中抗性组的来源并测定其多样性; 3）阐明携带ARG的细菌用于在植物中和植物上生存的代谢适应。鸟枪宏基因组学将用于研究土壤和植物样品中微生物群落的抗性组，定量蛋白质组学将用于研究生活在植物上和植物中的携带ARG的细菌的蛋白质表达。研究小组将通过农业推广教育材料，直接向农民和作物生产者传播研究成果。该项目的教育计划将侧重于丰富学生的学习经验与工程，农业和环境科学的跨学科知识。该项目将招募来自代表性不足群体的本科生，并将开发一个新的课程模块，向学生展示ARG在环境中的行为。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) make bacteria resistant to antibiotics, and disease-causing pathogens possessing ARGs can make antibiotic treatment of infectious deceases less effective in treating pathogens, and hence, threaten public health. Soil is a major environmental reservoir of ARGs, and edible crops grown in ARG-containing soils have the potential to serve as a carrier of ARGs to humans and livestock that feed on the crops. After being introduced to the soil in croplands, some ARG-carrying bacteria will reside in the surface soil, and may transfer to plant surfaces where they may be taken up by the plant. This project aims to address the knowledge gap on how ARGs are distributed in soil following the land application of fertilizer, and whether bacteria carrying ARGs survive in and on plants. This research can help determine the significance of plants as a vector for the transport of ARGs to humans. This knowledge can guide the development of management practices to prevent or minimize the uptake of ARGs to edible plants, thus protecting the Nation's food supply for the benefit of public health.The goal for this project is to improve our understanding of the mechanisms that govern the fate and transport of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in soil-plant ecosystems under field conditions. Three research objectives are established for the project: 1) characterize genetic resistance genes (resistome) in surface and rhizosphere soils following manure application and determine the correlation of the resistome with root exudates and antibiotics; 2) identify the source and measure the diversity of the resistome in the endophytic and epiphytic microbial communities in and on plants; 3) elucidate the metabolic adaptations that ARG-carrying bacteria use to survive in and on plants. Shotgun metagenomics will be used to study the resistome of the microbial communities in soil and plant samples, and quantitative proteomics will be used to study the protein expression of ARG-carrying bacteria living on and in plants. The research team will disseminate research findings directly to farmers and crop producers through agricultural extension education materials. The project education plan will focus on enriching student learning experiences with interdisciplinary knowledge of engineering, agriculture, and environmental science. Undergraduate students from underrepresented groups will be recruited to the project, and a new course module will be developed to show students the behaviors of ARGs in the environment.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.