Comparative Analysis of Enzybiotic Gene Abundance Across Environmental Microbiomes with Varied Plastic Pollution Levels

Enzybiotics, a unique class of antimicrobial enzymes originating from bacteriophages or bacterial sources, hold immense potential for addressing multidrug-resistant pathogens (Danis-Wlodarczyk et al., ۲۰۲۱; Thallinger et al., ۲۰۱۳; Wang et al., ۲۰۲۳). This study investigates the abundance of enzybiotic genes in whole metagenomic datasets derived from ۱۵ environmental microbiomes, spanning aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems affected and unaffected by plastic pollution. A comparative analysis was conducted to understand the ecological roles and distribution patterns of these genes. We developed a comprehensive computational pipeline that processes raw metagenomic data through multiple stages, including quality control, assembly, and annotation, utilizing enzybiotic-specific databases. Gene detection and identification employed a bitscore threshold of ≥۷۵ for initial screenings and ≥۱۰۰ for high-confidence annotations. The pipeline also integrates statistical methods to compare enzybiotic abundance across environments. Our findings reveal a significantly higher prevalence of enzybiotic-related genes in environments contaminated by plastic, regardless of aquatic or non-aquatic classification, compared to their uncontaminated counterparts. This pattern highlights potential adaptive responses or selective enrichment of microbial communities in polluted habitats. These results not only underscore the ecological impact of plastic pollution on microbiomes but also provide insight into the functional metagenomics of enzybiotics, suggesting their biotechnological relevance in such settings. This study lays the groundwork for leveraging enzybiotics in environmental biotechnology and microbial ecology, emphasizing their importance in adapting to pollution-driven ecosystem changes.

کلیدواژه ها:

Enzybiotics ، environmental microbiomes ، metagenomic analysis ، plastic pollution ، antimicrobial enzymes