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Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Antibiotic Dereplication Using the Antibiotic Resistance Platform
Published on: October 17, 2019
Plant agricultural streptomycin formulations do not carry antibiotic resistance genes
Fabio Rezzonico1, Virginia O Stockwell, Brion Duffy
1Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil, ACW, Swiss National Competence Center for Fire Blight, Wädenswil, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Streptomycin is used in plant agriculture for bacterial disease control, particularly against fire blight in pome fruit orchards. Concerns that this may increase environmental antibiotic resistance have led to bans or restrictions on use. Experience with antibiotic use in animal feeds raises the possible influence of formulation-delivered resistance genes. We demonstrate that agricultural streptomycin formulations do not carry producer organism resistance genes. By using an optimized extraction procedure, Streptomyces 16S rRNA genes and the streptomycin resistance gene strA were not detected in agricultural streptomycin formulations. This diminishes the likelihood for one potential factor in resistance development due to streptomycin use.
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