Water is one of the most important bacterial habitats on Earth. As such, water
represents also a major way of dissemination of bacteria between different environmental
compartments. Human activities led to the creation of the so-called
urban water cycle, comprising different sectors (waste, surface, drinking water),
among which bacteria can hypothetically be exchanged. Therefore, bacteria can
be mobilized between unclean water habitats (e.g. wastewater) and clean or
pristine water environments (e.g. disinfected and spring drinking water) and
eventually reach humans. In addition, bacteria can also transfer mobile genetic
elements between different water types, other environments (e.g. soil) and
humans. These processes may involve antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic
resistance genes. In this review, the hypothesis that some bacteria may
share different water compartments and be also hosted by humans is discussed
based on the comparison of the bacterial diversity in different types of water
and with the human-associated microbiome. The role of such bacteria as
potential disseminators of antibiotic resistance and the inference that currently
only a small fraction of the clinically relevant antibiotic resistome may be
known is discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
