This study demonstrates the utility of postmortem microbiome sampling during routine autopsy as a method to survey antibiotic resistance carriage in a general population.
Population-based public health data on antibiotic resistance gene carriage is poorly surveyed. Research on the human microbiome as an antibiotic resistance reservoir has primarily focused on gut associated microbial communities, but data have shown more widespread microbial colonization across organs than originally believed, with organs previously considered as sterile being colonized. In the current study, postmortem microbial sampling detected pathogens of public health concern, including genes for multidrug efflux pumps, carbapenem, methicillin, vancomycin, and polymixin resistances. Results suggest that postmortem assessments of host-associated microbial communities are useful in acquiring community-specific data while reducing selective-participant biases. (publisher abstract modified)
Downloads
Similar Publications
- Genetics and Genomics of Core Short Tandem Repeat Loci Used in Human Identity Testing
- Forgotten Spaces: The Structural Disappearance of Migrants in South Texas, chapter in The Marginalized in Death: A Forensic Anthropology of Intersectional Identity in the Modern Era
- Correctional Officer Fatalities in Line of Duty During 2005 to 2015: A Survival Analysis