UNDERSTANDING THE

DEVELOPMENT OF
ENVIRONMENTAL RESISTANCE
AMONG MICROBES
Review by: Srivastava Jatin; Chandra Harish
CLEAN-SOIL AIR WATER
Published: JUL 2016

Student: Rusu Andrada-Silvia

Content
 1 Introduction
 2 Resistant microbes in natural environment
 3 Factors influencing the development of resistance
among microbes
 4 Risk associated with microbial resistance
 5 Concluding remarks
 6 Quiz Question
 Indiscriminate industrial development and increased
human population have altered the environmental
conditions all over the world, creating challenges for
various life forms on earth.
 Environmental pollutants such as toxic metals and
hazardous organic compounds are fatal for life.
 This paper reviews the development of environmental
resistance among microbes having resistance to
antibiotics.
 Key words:
1. Microbes are microorganisms, especially a bacterium
causing disease or fermentation.
2. Environmental microbiology is the ecology of
microorganisms: their relationship with one another and
with their environment. It concerns the three major
domains of life—Eukaryota, Archaea, and Bacteria—as
well as viruses.
 Key words:
 3. Antibiotics (antibacterials) are a type
of antimicrobial drug used in
the treatment and prevention of bacterial infections.
They may either kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria.
 4. Antibiotic resistance occurs when an antibiotic has lost
its ability to effectively control or kill bacterial growth; in
other words, the bacteria are "resistant" and continue to
multiply in the presence of therapeutic levels of
an antibiotic.
Introduction
 Microbes account for more than 70% of the total
biomass of biosphere and are the integrated part
of all the ecosystems on earth.
 Different ecosystems have unique microbial
community, having one or more common species
having different genetic information.
 Microbial cells rapidly and adequately adapt the
changing environmental conditions because of their
higher reproduction rates, allowing them to transfer the
acquired characters to the next generation in the
shortest period of time.
 To understand the development of environmental
resistance among microbes, it should be remembered
that the resistance conferring genes are naturally
present in the environment evolved over ages.
 Most of the surviving microbial communities at
heavily polluted environment possess over-
abundance of genes conferring defense against
various types of environmental stresses.
 Continuous exposure to toxic chemicals such as
antibiotics, develop huge selection pressure and
cause genetic alterations subsequently in microbes
through the point mutation giving rise to the new
resistant microbial phenotype having stable genetic
recombination ensuring their survival.
 The newly developed gene, conferring resistance
against the targeted toxic compound are transferred to
the next generation or to the other microbes (in
community) through horizontal gene transfer (HGT) by
the transferable genetic elements (e.g., plasmids), cause
widespread of the resistance trait.
 Interestingly, there are some common bacterial species
for e.g., Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas
aeruginosa having resistance to antimicrobials as well
as for toxic organic pollutants such as chlorinated
pesticides, a group of persistent organic poluttants.
Staphylococcus aureus Pseudomonas aeruginosa
2. Resistant microbes in natural
environment
 Microbial resistance against chemical environment is
contemporary with the evolution of life, for e.g.,
antimicrobial resistance has been observed since the
development of antibiotics; however, resistance among
the microbes developed quite earlier prior to the
clinical use of antibiotic drugs in the natural
environment.
 In general, the presence of toxic organic chemicals
increases the frequencies of horizontal gene transfer
and resistance gene fixation in genomes leading to the
development of resistance.
 For instance, partially metabolized antibiotics
administered to humans and animals cause the
release of large amount of undigested antibiotics
and their metabolites in environment, which further
develop huge selection pressure on environmental
bacteria leading to the development of new gene.
3. Factors influencing the development
of resistance among microbes
 The development of the environmental resistance in
microbes is spontaneous and has no pre-defined
pattern.
 Various biotic and abiotic factors, those influence
the behavior and growth of microbial cells,
membrane permeability and ionic strength of
cytoplasm may influence the biological processes of
microbes.
1. Extreme environmental conditions cause toxic
pressure, which give rise to genetically evolved
resistant determinants which survive at metal
contaminated sites.
2. Pollution level in the environment caused the entry of
the chromosomally encoded resistant gene on the
transferable genetic elements .
3. Major abiotic factors include the change of physico-
chemical environment of the microbial community.
Physico-chemical factors- redox potential (Eh), pH, ionic
strength, solubility, temperature, availability of
electron acceptors, and electron donors.
 4. Risk associated with microbial
resistance
 Despite being rich in natural resources, the
underdeveloped countries such as India, China, and
North East of Central Africa could not make the
proper use of resources because of poor economy
and higher population growth rate.
 Initiatives taken by world countries to improve
quality of life and the life expectancy in the
developing world led the production of synthetic
antibiotics.
 In developing countries, substandard practices and
defunct sewage-treatment plants also caused the
entry of resistant microbes in the environment
through the water ways.
 Wastewater treatment plants are the major
reservoirs of resistance genes especially in suburbs
of developing countries.
Wastewater treatment plant chillers
 The pollution of natural ecosystems by toxic
chemicals, especially metals has increased the
chances of development of resistant genes and
resistance, among environmental microbes and by
the indiscriminate use of antibiotics.
 Hot and humid conditions are the most favorable
for the growth of microbes especially for
pathogenic bacteria. In the densely populated,
poorly hygienic, polluted, and warmer countries like
in India, human body provides excellent conditions
for the development of new resistant genes.
 Developing world is worst affected by the
resistance and the developed nations are not safe
either because of the immigration of the people
between the world countries.
5. Conclusion remarks
 Environmental microbial resistance is the result of
huge selections pressure of various toxic chemicals
of anthropogenic origin including the antimicrobials.
 Since antibiotics are partially digested and
substantial amount is excreted out from the body
through the feces of human and animals. Potential
risks have been suggested by the researchers where
the manure is used for organic farming, expose the
environmental bacteria having inherent resistance to
variety of chemicals.
6. Quiz Question
What does increase the frequencies of horizontal
gene transfer and resistance gene fixation in
genomes?
Answer: The presence of toxic organic chemicals increases the frequencies of
horizontal gene transfer and resistance gene fixation.

Thank you for your attention!