Genomic insights into antibiotic resistance in dental caries among the south indian population: A bioinformatics approach with abrit AMR.

OBJECTIVE

This research aims to explore the prevalence, diversity, and impact of Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARGs) in dental caries within the South Indian population, as well as their association with microbial communities, with the goal of improving treatment outcomes and management strategies.

METHODS

Metagenomic shotgun sequencing was performed on 24 dental caries samples using the Illumina NovaSeq platform. The quality assessment was done using the FASTQC tool. The assembly of sequences was conducted using MEGAHIT and Velvet, which generate contigs, with MEGAHIT producing longer contigs than Velvet. ARGs were identified using AbritAMR (NCBI AMRFinderPlus) with a 90 % similarity threshold. Taxonomic profiling was conducted using SqueezeMeta (Silva database).

RESULTS

The analysis revealed a total of 55 distinct antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), including 9 efflux pump genes, 8 beta-lactam resistance genes, 4 aminoglycoside resistance genes, and 4 tetracycline resistance genes. Fourteen metal resistance genes were identified, of which copper and mercury resistance genes were the most prevalent. Taxonomic profiling revealed Pseudomonas, Stenotrophomonas, and Acinetobacter as common genera associated with ARGs in dental caries samples from the South Indian population.

CONCLUSION

This is the first study to uncover a significant number of ARGs using shotgun metagenomic sequencing of dental caries samples in the South Indian population. This work contributes to our knowledge of the genetic foundation of antibiotic resistance in dental caries in the South Indian population. To address antibiotic resistance in oral health conditions, unique ARGs and their associations with bacterial taxa offer important new insights for future study and the creation of focused treatment approaches.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The detection of unique ARGs and their association with specific bacterial taxonomy offers valuable insights for developing more effective interventions against antibiotic resistance in oral health.