The largest metagenomic（元基因组的） search for antibiotic1 resistance genes3 in the DNA4 sequences of microbial communities from around the globe has found that bacteria carrying those vexing5（让人烦恼的） genes turn up everywhere in nature that scientists look for them. The findings reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on May 8 add to evidence showing just how common and abundant those resistance genes really are in natural environments. This big-picture, ecological6 view on a growing healthcare concern emphasizes the important relationship between antibiotic resistance in the clinic and environmental microbiology, the researchers say.While the environment is known to harbor antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, as proven by many preceding studies, we did not really know the extent of their abundance, says Joseph Nesme of the Universit de Lyon in France. The fact that we were able to detect antibiotic resistance genes at relatively7 important abundance in every environment tested is certainly our most striking result.The researchers, including Nesme and senior author of the study Pascal Simonet, took advantage of the ever-growing reams of existing next-generation sequencing data that are freely available in public repositories（贮藏室） together with information about antibiotic resistance genes found in pathogens infecting patients in the clinic.Our strategy was simply to use all these pre-existing data and combine them to answer more precisely8 the question of antibiotic resistance prevalence in the environment, Nesme says.The scientists analyses detected antibiotic resistance gene2 determinants in all 71 environments represented in the public data, including soil, oceans, and human feces. Samples collected from soil contained the most diverse pool of resistance genes, the authors found. The most common types of resistance uncovered were efflux pumps and other genes conferring resistance to vancomycin（万古霉素）, tetracycline（四环素）, or beta-lactam antibiotics9, which are in common use in veterinary（兽医的） and human healthcare.All this, and Simonet says they know that todays technologies are still unable to capture all of the diversity present in the environment. In other words, were still missing part of the picture.There is a very good reason microbes would be armed with antibiotic resistance genes, the researchers explain. After all, most antibiotics used in medicine are isolated10 from soil microorganisms, such as bacteria or fungi11, in the first place. That means that the resistance genes were available long before humans put antibiotic drugs into use. Bacteria lacking them to start with can simply borrow them from those that are better equipped.Nesme and Simonet say the new findings should come as a plea for a broader ecological perspective on the antibiotic resistance problem.It is only with more knowledge on antibiotic resistance dis百度竞价推广ination12 -- from the environment to pathogens in the clinic and leading to antibiotic treatment failure rates -- that we will be able to produce more sustainable antibiotic drugs, Nesme says.
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1 antibiotic adj.抗菌的；n.抗生素 参考例句： The doctor said that I should take some antibiotic.大夫说我应该服些用抗生素。 Antibiotic can be used against infection.抗菌素可以用来预防感染。
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