antibiotics Article Tracking Reservoirs of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in a Complex Microbial Community Using Metagenomic Hi-C: The Case of Bovine Digital Dermatitis Ashenafi F. Beyi 1 , Alan Hassall 2, Gregory J. Phillips 1 and Paul J. Plummer 1,2,3,* 1 Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA;
[email protected] (A.F.B.);
[email protected] (G.J.P.) 2 Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA;
[email protected] 3 National Institute of Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Education, Ames, IA 50010, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: Bovine digital dermatitis (DD) is a contagious infectious cause of lameness in cattle with unknown definitive etiologies. Many of the bacterial species detected in metagenomic analyses of DD lesions are difficult to culture, and their antimicrobial resistance status is largely unknown. Recently, a novel proximity ligation-guided metagenomic approach (Hi-C ProxiMeta) has been used to identify bacterial reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) directly from microbial communities, without the need to culture individual bacteria. The objective of this study was to track tetracycline resistance determinants in bacteria involved in DD pathogenesis using Hi-C. A pooled sample of macerated tissues from clinical DD lesions was used for this purpose. Metagenome deconvolution Citation: Beyi, A.F.; Hassall, A.; ≥ Phillips, G.J.; Plummer, P.J. Tracking using ProxiMeta resulted in the creation of 40 metagenome-assembled genomes with 80% complete Reservoirs of Antimicrobial genomes, classified into five phyla. Further, 1959 tetracycline resistance genes and ARGs conferring Resistance Genes in a Complex resistance to aminoglycoside, beta-lactams, sulfonamide, phenicol, lincosamide, and erythromycin Microbial Community Using were identified along with their bacterial hosts.