acquired antimicrobial resistance genes of escherichia coli obtained from nigeria: in silico genome analysis

Background: antimicrobial resistance is a global problem with enormous public health and economic impact. this study was carried out to get an overview of acquired antimi-crobial resistance gene sequences in the genomes of e. coli isolated from different food sources and the environment in nigeria. methods: to determine the acquired antimicrobial-resistant genes prevalence, genome assemblies of 272 isolates were analyzed in silico with kmerresistance 2.2 software. results: a total of 107 antimicrobial resistance genes, which included genes that encode for 24 extended-spectrum beta-lactamases were detected. potential multidrug resistance was found in 90% of the genomes analyzed. all strains analyzed contained at least one resistant gene sequence and had high similarity or homology (95% id and above). two strains harboured over 30 sequences of antimicrobial resistant genes, and in 24 strains over 20 genes were detected. conclusion: the resistant genes found in all the genomes analyzed were acquired intra-species and not inter-species. this provides an opportunity for further studies of the orthologous nature of the genes detected and the data obtained can help monitor the epi-demiology of e. coli resistant genes in the food and environment.