{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]],"date-time":"2026-10-09T21:15:34Z","timestamp":1791580534013,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"22","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,14]],"date-time":"2022-11-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1668384000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Higher Education Commission","award":["NRPU-8062"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NRPU-8062"]}]},{"name":"Higher Education Commission","award":["RSP-2021\/180"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RSP-2021\/180"]}]},{"name":"King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia","award":["NRPU-8062"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NRPU-8062"]}]},{"name":"King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia","award":["RSP-2021\/180"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RSP-2021\/180"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The plant rhizosphere is not only a reservoir of microbes but also a hub of antimicrobial resistance genes. Rhizospheric Bacillus spp. are the potential bio-inoculants with a versatile application in agriculture as bio-fertilizer and bio-fungicide. In the current study, the potential bio-control agent that is the Bacillus species (n = 7) was screened for the antimicrobial resistance pattern to assess their risk before registering them as a bio-inoculant. All of the Bacillus spp. were categorized as multi-drug-resistant (MDR), bacteria but none of them was either pan-drug-resistant (PDR) or extensive-drug-resistant (XDR). The multiple antimicrobial resistance (MAR) index of Bacillus spp. was higher than the critical value (0.2). The Bacillus spp. showed resistance to antimicrobial classes such as \u03b2 lactam, macrolides, sulfonamides, tetracycline, aminoglycosides, and lincosamide. Various antimicrobial resistance genes, namely VmiR, ImrB, tetL, mphK, ant-6, penp, and bla OXA, associated with different mechanisms of resistance, were also detected in Bacillus spp. The Bacillus spp. also showed stress-tolerance traits such as ACC deaminase and EPS activity except the strains MAZ-117 and FZV-34, respectively. A significant correlation was observed between the PGPR and antimicrobial resistance, which shows that they may have adapted drug-resistance mechanisms to tolerate the environmental stress. These findings suggest that bio-fungicidal Bacillus spp. could be used very carefully on a commercial scale.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph192214997","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,15]],"date-time":"2022-11-15T02:28:04Z","timestamp":1668479284000},"page":"14997","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":30,"title":["Prevalence of Antimicrobial Resistance and Respective Genes among Bacillus spp., a Versatile Bio-Fungicide"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Pari","family":"Wash","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Park Road, Islamabad 45550, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Asiya","family":"Batool","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Park Road, Islamabad 45550, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7323-3794","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shah","family":"Mulk","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Park Road, Islamabad 45550, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shabnum","family":"Nazir","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Park Road, Islamabad 45550, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4220-4808","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Humaira","family":"Yasmin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Park Road, Islamabad 45550, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3319-5671","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Saqib","family":"Mumtaz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Park Road, Islamabad 45550, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohammed Nasser","family":"Alyemeni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3145-2849","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Prashant","family":"Kaushik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Conservation y Mejora de la Agrodiversidad, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8219-4440","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Muhammad Nadeem","family":"Hassan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Park Road, Islamabad 45550, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"145906","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scitotenv.2021.145906","article-title":"Insights into the Fate and Removal of Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance Genes Using Biological Wastewater Treatment Technology","volume":"776","author":"Zhu","year":"2021","journal-title":"Sci. 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