The antibiotic resistome

Antibiotics are essential for the treatment of bacterial infections and are among our most important drugs. Resistance has emerged to all classes of antibiotics in clinical use. Antibiotic resistance has, proven inevitable and very often it emerges rapidly after the introduction of a drug into the clinic. There is, therefore, a great interest in understanding the origins, scope and evolution of antibiotic resistance.

The review discusses the concept of the antibiotic resistome, which is the collection of all genes that directly or indirectly contribute to antibiotic resistance.

The review seeks to assemble current knowledge of the resistome concept as a means of understanding the totality of resistance and not just resistance in pathogenic bacteria.

The concept of the antibiotic resistome provides a framework for the study and understanding of how resistance emerges and evolves. Furthermore, the study of the resistome reveals strategies that can be applied in new antibiotic discoveries.