This report revolves around a research study that I thought was interesting and extremely significant. This research is titled “Air pollution could drive global dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes,” and can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41396-020-00780-2. This study investigates the possibility of the spread of antibiotic resistance genes through snow and was conducted by scholars present all around the world, from Asia to Europe.

To understand this research, some context could be helpful. Many of you may know that some bacteria are harmful to humans and can cause infections. Therefore, antibiotics were created; these items were designed to kill harmful bacteria and are being used to treat bacterial infections. However, because of the rapid reproduction of bacteria and their ability to partake in horizontal gene transfer, many types of bacteria have evolved and carry genes that are part of their DNA, which give bacteria with these genes the ability to be unaffected by antibiotics. These genes are called antibiotic resistance genes. Because bacteria have the ability to absorb these genes that are spread throughout the environment when they are near them, the spread of antibiotic resistance genes is a serious issue, and scientists have been finding ways to limit the spread of these genes in order to prevent more bacteria from becoming resistant to antibiotics.

The authors of the research explain that it has previously been found that these genes could spread through atmospheric particles and return to the earth as snow. Therefore, they observed the contents of antibiotic resistance genes in fresh snow. They did this by investigating 44 samples of snow around the world, across three different continents. Most importantly, their main research finding was that antibiotic resistance genes did actually spread from place to place through atmospheric particles returning to earth as snow. 

The significance of the research is the confirmation that antibiotics could be spread through the atmosphere worldwide. This means that antibiotic resistance genes stemming from a single location such as a sewage or hospital could end up traveling fairly long distances and could even end up in separate continents of the world. This is a severe issue, as the results of the study indicate that bacteria all over the world could quickly develop antibiotic resistance, causing the antibiotics, the tool that we relied on for decades, to become useless.

Zhu, G., Wang, X., Yang, T. et al. Air pollution could drive global dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes. ISME J 15, 270–281 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-020-00780-2