Flies are well known vectors of bacterial pathogens but there is little data on their role in spreading microbial community and antimicrobial resistance. In this study, we compared the bacterial community, antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in flies with those in the feces of sympatric animals. A 16S rRNA-based microbial analysis identified 23 bacterial phyla in fecal samples and 25 phyla in flies; all the phyla identified in the fecal samples were also found in the flies. Bray-Curtis dissimilarity analysis showed that the microbiota of the flies were more similar to the microbiota of the feces of their sympatric animals than those of the feces from the three other animal species studied. The qPCR array amplified 276 ARGs/MGEs in fecal samples, and 216 ARGs/MGEs in the flies while 198 of these genes were identified in both flies and feces. Long-term studies with larger sample numbers from more geospatially distinct populations and infection trials are indicated to further evaluate the possibility of flies as sentinels for antimicrobial resistance.

中文翻译：

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同胞动物果蝇和粪便中微生物群，抗菌素耐药基因和活动遗传元件的比较。

蝇是细菌病原体的众所周知的载体，但是关于它们在传播微生物群落和抗菌素耐药性中的作用的数据很少。在这项研究中，我们比较了同伴动物粪便中的果蝇中的细菌群落，抗菌素耐药基因（ARGs）和移动遗传元件（MGEs）。基于16S rRNA的微生物分析鉴定出粪便样品中有23个细菌门，果蝇中有25个门。粪便样品中鉴定出的所有门也都在果蝇中发现。Bray-Curtis差异分析表明，与研究的其他三种动物的粪便相比，果蝇的微生物群与同伴动物粪便的微生物群更相似。qPCR阵列在粪便样品中扩增了276个ARG / MGE，果蝇中有216个ARGs / MGEs，而果蝇和粪便中都鉴定出了198个这样的基因。长期研究表明，从更大的地理空间上不同的种群中抽取大量样本，并进行了感染试验，以进一步评估果蝇作为抗微生物剂的前哨的可能性。