Understanding the evolution of antimicrobials resistance in environmental vibrios – RESISTE

Oyster farming is more and more based on selective breeding programs, a practice that still requires antibiotic treatment of genitors in hatcheries. Our preliminary data suggest that antibiotic resistance is a common feature in environmental vibrios and that oysters could act as hotspots of horizontal gene transfers. Facing the therapeutic impasse of antibiotics, oyster aquaculture should consider the extraordinary resource of virulent phages for eco-friendly practices. It is, however, crucial to understand how phages can control pathogenic vibrios in a sustainable and safety manner. There is a critical need to identify the mechanisms of phage–vibrio interaction and to analyze how the evolution of phage resistance influences vibrio pathogenicity. By combining infection biology, microbial ecology and evolution, phage and bacterial genomics, the goal of this project, is to shed light on the origins, spread and evolution of antimicrobial resistance genes in environmental vibrios.