New Publication out !

The battle against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is becoming one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. Many antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are encoded on mobile genetic elements (MGEs) allowing their dynamic transfer between different bacterial hosts. Global monitoring initiatives that evaluate ARG mobility and integrate the potential for gene transfer into quantitative risk models are urgently needed. However, methods allowing to quantify the mobility of ARGs, and hence their ability to spread to human or animal pathogenic bacteria, are currently lacking. To overcome this, we here developed and validate an easily applicable and low-cost method that allow for the rapid, quantitative surveillance of ARG mobility using ddPCR. Such ddPCR-based methods have been widely applied for rapid, easy-to-use and cost-efficient surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic and can using this newly developed method provide equal opportunities in future AMR surveillance.

Magali de la Cruz Barron, David Kneis, Alan Xavier Elena, Kenyum Bagra, Thomas U Berendonk, Uli Klümper (2023) Quantification of the mobility potential of antibiotic resistance genes through multiplexed ddPCR linkage analysis, FEMS Microbiology Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiad031

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