- Does heavy metal contamination influence the antimicrobial resistance properties of microbial communities?
- Can contamination alter the genetic composition of these organisms, thereby impacting their antimicrobial properties?
I wish to investigate these in my PhD!
I read once that heavy metal pollution is a main reason of antibiotic resistance.
The genes, responsible of metal tolerance or resistance, are inherited side by side with antibiotic-resistance genes on the same plasmids. So, contamination with heavy metals can indirectly lead to antibiotic resistance.
However, I noticed, through my experiments on pathogenic bacteria, that antibiotic-resistant isolates were more tolerant to high concentrations of metal nanoparticles than antibiotic-sensitive isolates.
In addition, metallo-B-lactamases, a serious threat of B-lactam resistance, are zinc metal-dependent.
Subsequently, metal contamination can lead to antibiotic resistance or vice versa. It is not clear which one exactly led to the other.
Heavy metals impacted the abundance and dissemination of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) and antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), with MGEs also observed as playing a key role in the spread of ARGs and metal resistance genes (MRGs).
Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749123000374#:~:text=Heavy%20metals%20impacted%20the%20abundance,metal%20resistance%20genes%20(MRGs).
From publications, I have discovered that high concentrations of Heavy metals (HM) alter the genetic makeups of organisms (both plant and animal), and these alterations mostly express negative functional impact- such as causing antimicrobial resistance.
1. I have been thinking, what if we study the activity/ genome of these organisms when exposed to three or four HM at different concentrations?
2. I also know a few medicinal plants with antimicrobial properties, I was also wondering, if the presence of these heavy metals influences this property, and to what degree.
I think we can find something beautiful in this research
I need a PhD supervisor.
Thank you for your comment
Hadil Alzehyrie
Khalid Khan
Norman Dyanto
Gehad Al-Arabi
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Biochemistry
- Biomolecules
- Peptides