Naturally Occurring and Widespread Resistance to Bioactive Natural Products

Naturally occurring resistances diminish the effectiveness of antibiotics, and present significant challenges to human health. Human activities are usually considered as the main drivers of the dissemination of antibiotic resistance, however, the origin of the clinical antibiotic resistance can be traced to the environmental microbes, and the clinically relevant resistance determinants have already pre-existed in nature before the antibiotics come into clinic. In this concept, we present the naturally occurring and widespread resistance determinants recently discovered during the biosynthesis study of bioactive compounds. These widely prevalent resistances in environmental microbes, including antibiotic producers and non-producers, advance the understanding of the origin of resistance, and provide prediction for the clinically relevant resistance to aid in the rational design of more effective drug analogues to combat resistance. Antibiotic resistance is causing global health crisis. Understanding the origin of antibiotic resistance is crucial for combating antibiotic resistance. In this concept, we present several naturally occurring resistances that are recently discovered and already widespread in microbes, aiming to advance the understanding of the origin of antibiotic resistance from a new perspective. RG: resistance gene.image