ANTIVERSA
Biodiversity: Barrier for Antibiotic Resistance
Duration:
2020 - 2023
Financing:
national: Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, FWF
international: BiodivERsA (gefördert durch EU´s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement No 642420) und versch. Fördergeber in den jeweiligen Ländern der Projektpartner (Deutschland: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung & Stadtentwässerung Dresden; Irland: Environmental Protection Agency; Frankreich: Agence Nationale de la Recherche; Schweiz: Swiss National Science Foundation; Rumänien: Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation; Polen: National Science Centre)
Contact Person:
Julia Vierheilig
Project Staff:
Norbert Kreuzinger, Irina Dielacher, Amandine Masseron, Elena Radu
Links:
https://tu-dresden.de/bu/umwelt/hydro/hydrobiologie/limnologie/forschung/projekte/antiversa
National Partners:
National: Markus Wögerbauer & Team (AGES - Österreichische Agentur für Gesundheit und Ernährungssicherheit GmbH)
International: Thomas Berendonk & Team (TU Dresden, Institut für Hydrobiologie, Deutschland), Fiona Walsh & Team (National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Co Kildare, Irland), Christophe Merlin & Team (Université de Lorraine, LCPME, Frankreich), Helmut Bürgmann & Team (Eawag - Das Wasserforschungsinstitut des ETH-Bereichs, Kastanienbaum, Schweiz), Cristian Coman & Team (Institute of Biological Research Cluj, Cluj-Napoca, Rumänien), Magdalena Popowska & Team (Universität von Warschau, Institut für Mikrobiologie, Warschau, Polen), Stadtentwässerung Dresden, Deutschland
Brief information on the project
ANTIVERSA is project of an European Consortium, composed of teams from seven countries and coordinated by the Technical University of Dresden (TUD).
The main objective is understand the impact of diversity on the invasion of natural microbial communities (microbiomes of aquatic stream biofilms and terrestrial soils) by ARBs, ARGs and their associated mobile genetic elements (MGEs). Aquatic biofilms and soil microbiomes of contrasting diversity will be exposed to extracellular DNA, transducing phages or resistant bacteria of anthropogenic origin in experiments following standardised procedures to be obtain comparable results from all consortium countries. Additionally, selected aquatic and terrestrial sites with different level of biodiversity from all consortium countries will be monitored over time for their biodiversity and abundance in ARGs and ARBs, under the hypothesis to find a negative correlation between the biodiversity and the abundance of antibiotic resistance. Overall, the ANTIVERSA project stresses the importance of studying the nexus between biodiversity and the antibiotic resistance with the final goal of preserving natural ecosystems services and to help develop management practices and regulations to maintain water and soil quality.