Bridging soil resistome and clinical inference: A four-tier evidentiary framework

Soils support a varied range of microbial communities and are important repositories of antimicrobial resistance genes. Sequence-based techniques, such as quantitative polymerase chain reaction and shotgun metagenomics, have substantially aided soil-resistome cataloging. Nevertheless, discovery alone does not indicate activity, transferability, exposure, or clinical relevance. This review contends that better clinical inference requires tying presence-based signals to function, mobility, and exposure routes, rather than just increasing survey volume. We offer a four-tiered evidentiary paradigm that distinguishes between detection, functional or expression-based evidence, mobile genetic element context, and exposure-linked evidence in environmental, animal, and human compartments. Because activity, mobility, and cross-compartmental similarity support several claims, layered, claim-aligned approaches are required for careful One Health interpretation.