Emerging Pollutants and the Environmental Resistome: Microbial Responses and Implications for Human Health

Emerging pollutants are a diverse group of chemicals that include pharmaceuticals, personal care products, microplastics, industrial chemicals, nanomaterials, and pesticide residues. Over the years, these pollutants have been detected more frequently in the environment -soil, and water bodies-, increasing concerns about their potential human health risks. The environmental presence of emerging pollutants exerts selective pressure on microorganisms, promoting the acquisition, maintenance, and horizontal transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes. Sub-inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics, pesticides, heavy metals, and even microplastics can co-select for antimicrobial resistance genes by inducing stress responses, accelerating the evolution of the environmental resistome. Assessment of the environmental resistome gives key information/evidence to reduce ecological and human health risks, improve soil remediation and wastewater treatment technologies, and implement regulations and public policies to reduce environmental release of emerging pollutants under the One Health Framework.

The increase in the repertoire of antimicrobial resistance genes in environmental microorganisms poses a high risk to humans. Antimicrobial-resistant microorganisms can enter animal and human populations through contaminated water, food chains, soil–plant interactions, and, inclusively, through recreational exposure. This ecological–clinical linkage underscores a growing concern: environmental pollution is not only an ecological issue but also a significant public health threat that can diminish the efficacy of the antimicrobial agents currently used to control infection. Understanding this resistome is an impoortnt task to understand how resistance emerges and spreads to pathogens, the use of metagenomic approaches in polluted environments has become one of the most powerful tools for characterizing the environmental resistome, due it does not require culture and isolation of microorganisms to detect antimicrobial resistance genes.

We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

-Emerging pollutants (pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides, microplastics, nanomaterials, industrial chemicals) accumulate in soil and water, where they act as selective and co-selective agents for antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs).
-Sub-inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics, pesticides, heavy metals, and microplastics induce stress responses and favor horizontal gene transfer, driving the evolution and expansion of the environmental resistome.
-Environmental microorganisms carrying ARGs and mobile genetic elements can reach humans and animals through contaminated water, food chains, soil–plant interfaces, and recreational exposure.
-This ecological–clinical linkage shows that environmental pollution is a major public health issue that can reduce the effectiveness of current antimicrobial therapies.
-Metagenomic approaches enable culture-independent characterization of the environmental resistome, linking pollutant profiles, microbial communities, ARGs, and mobile genetic elements.
-Assessing the environmental resistome under a One Health framework is essential to identify environmental reservoirs of clinically relevant resistance, guide remediation and wastewater treatment strategies, and support evidence-based regulations to limit pollutant release.