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A survey on antimicrobial resistance genes of frequently used bacteria in kefir and yoghurt

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the foremost threats facing the treatment of infectious diseases worldwide. Recent studies have highlighted the potential for antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in fermented foods to contribute to AMR via horizontal gene transfer (HGT). The focus of our study was investigating the ARG content (resistome) and mobility potential of the ARGs (mobilome) of bacterial strains commonly used in probiotic products, namely yoghurt and kefir. We performed metagenomic analyses on freely available data sets (n=584) originating from various kefir and yoghurt strains using next generation sequencing (NGS) in order to gain an insight into the ARG diversity, frequency and mobility. Our study shows that kefir and yoghurt products carry diverse and significant amounts of ARGs and that these genes may often be associated with iMGEs or plasmids, conferring mobility. Certain bacteria species such as Bifidobacterium animalis and Streptococcus thermophilus were found to have higher ARG content. Overall, our results support the hypothesis that ARGs are present in fermented foods, namely yoghurt and kefir, and have the potential to contribute to AMR.