Evolutionary Genomics of Emerging Antimicrobial Resistance Threats

Evolution of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in microbes including bacteria, fungi and protozoa is a growing concern globally. Be it in clinical settings such as intensive care units or wards, or environmental sites including water bodies, waste water treatment plants, or agricultural soils to animal farm sectors like poultry, cattle or aquaculture, the microbes rapidly develop resistance to most of the antimicrobial compounds. This subsequently results in horizontal gene transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and emergence of multi drug resistant microbes often leading to increased morbidity and mortality.

Understanding how bacteria and fungi evolve and adapt to antimicrobial agents is crucial to prevent the emergence and spread of AMR. Understanding the evolution, spread and stabilization of resistance involves comparative genome studies of different microbial strains or species, effect of sub-lethal exposure of antibiotics on resistance development through genetic alterations or modified gene regulation, understanding the horizontal transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes in the environment or hospitals by comparative genome studies, and understanding the effect of antibiotic exposure on the formation and metabolic reprogramming of biofilms resulting in resistant communities.
The focus of the current special issue will be on how antimicrobial resistance emerges, spreads in the environment or community via horizontal gene transfer and how these genetic changes lead to stable biochemical or metabolic changes conferring resistant advantages.

This Special Issue welcomes contributions that improve our understanding about the emergence, spread and stabilization of antimicrobial resistance among microbes and their biochemical or metabolic effects. Potential areas of interest may include, but are not limited to:
• Comparative genomics of resistant pathogens (including cross-species and strain-level comparisons, pan-genome analysis of resistance genes and evolutionary hotspots of AMR)
• Evolution of resistance via genetic mutations (including mutation rates and adaptive evolution under antibiotic stress, fitness costs and compensatory mutations)
• Horizontal gene transfer (involving plasmids, integrons and transposons, environmental reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance genes and their transmission dynamics)
• Metabolic reprogramming in AMR (including metabolic alterations as a result of resistance mutations, transformation to biofilm lifestyle and changes in growth kinetics)

Article types and fees

This Special Issue accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Special Issue description:

• Brief Research Report
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Special Issue accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Special Issue description:

• Brief Research Report
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review