Functional Cloning and Characterization of Antibiotic Resistance Genes from the Chicken Gut Microbiome

Culture-independent sampling in conjunction with a functional cloning approach identified diverse antibiotic resistance genes for different classes of antibiotics in gut microbiomes from both conventionally raised and free-range chickens. Many of the genes are phylogenetically distant from known resistance genes. Two unique genes that conferred ampicillin and spectinomycin resistance were also functional in Campylobacter, a distant relative of the Escherichia coli host used to generate the genomic libraries.