New roadmap reveals how everyday chemicals and microbes interact to fuel antimicrobial resistance

A new perspective published in Biocontaminant outlines an urgent scientific roadmap for understanding how common chemicals interact with microbial communities to accelerate the global crisis of antimicrobial resistance. The work, led by Ji Lu from the University of Queensland, highlights why traditional single chemical experiments fail to capture the real drivers of resistance in natural and clinical environments.

“Chemicals rarely occur alone in the real world. They mix, react, and interact with diverse microbiomes in ways that can either amplify or suppress antimicrobial resistance,” said Dr Lu. “If we want to protect public health, we must understand these interactions and use that knowledge to guide smarter monitoring and regulation.”

The article summarizes emerging evidence that mixtures of pollutants such as antibiotics, disinfectants, metals, and microplastics can have unexpected combined effects that promote resistance even when each chemical is present at low levels. Diverse microbial communities can sometimes buffer these effects, but in other cases they create conditions that accelerate the spread of resistance genes.

To address these challenges, the study proposes a three part roadmap. The first step focuses on mechanistic discovery through high throughput experiments and genomic tools to identify how chemical mixtures interact and how bacterial traits influence their responses. The second step emphasizes predictive modelling that integrates chemical properties, microbial traits, and environmental conditions to forecast high risk combinations. The final step promotes translation of these insights into practical interventions including mixture based risk thresholds, targeted pollutant removal, and microbiome informed mitigation strategies for water treatment and environmental management.

Dr Lu emphasized that coordinated efforts among scientists, regulators, utilities, and clinicians will be essential. “Understanding chemical microbiome interactions will allow us to act proactively rather than reactively. This approach can reduce the emergence of resistance at its environmental sources and protect both ecosystems and human health.”

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Journal reference: Lu J. 2025. Chemicals–microbiome interactions and antimicrobial resistance: a roadmap for prediction and interventions. Biocontaminant 1: e009  

https://www.maxapress.com/article/doi/10.48130/biocontam-0025-0010  

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About Biocontaminant:
Biocontaminant is a multidisciplinary platform dedicated to advancing fundamental and applied research on biological contaminants across diverse environments and systems. The journal serves as an innovative, efficient, and professional forum for global researchers to disseminate findings in this rapidly evolving field.

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