Nutritional Drivers of Antimicrobial Resistance: Bacterial Responses, Resistance Gene Dynamics, and Control Strategies

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a global health challenge, with resistant pathogens and AMR genes increasingly detected across clinical, environmental, and food matrices. The human gut microbiome and food-associated microbial communities can serve as reservoirs for AMR genes, where horizontal gene transfer, selective pressures, and dysbiosis may accelerate resistance dissemination. In this context, dietary patterns, nutrients, food additives, and other food components can shape bacterial physiology and ecology by modulating resistance gene expression, biofilm formation, metabolic adaptation, and horizontal gene transfer, and thereby influencing the emergence, persistence, and spread of AMR within microbiomes and along the food chain. Understanding how specific nutrients and food components affect these mechanisms can support the development of practical strategies to control resistant pathogens and limit AMR gene dissemination in food systems. Despite growing interest, the contribution of diet and food components to AMR dynamics remains underexplored, and mechanistic evidence is often scattered across microbiology, nutrition, and food science. A more integrated framework is needed to connect mechanistic understanding with actionable mitigation approaches in food-related contexts.This Research Topic aims to elucidate how nutrients and food components influence AMR in bacteria, with particular attention to key mechanisms, including (i) modulation of resistance gene expression, (ii) biofilm formation, (iii) metabolic adaptation, and (iv) horizontal gene transfer. By centering bacterial adaptation processes and non-antibiotic selective pressures operating in food and gut-associated environments, this Topic seeks to identify nutritional and food-derived drivers that shape resistance outcomes beyond antibiotic exposure. Recent advances in molecular microbiology, -omics technologies, and experimental models offer new opportunities to clarify how specific nutrients and bioactive compounds affect bacterial stress responses, virulence traits, and gene dynamics relevant to AMR. Importantly, the Topic also emphasizes food-based mitigation strategies such as prebiotics, natural preservatives, and other bioactive compounds as feasible interventions to reduce the spread of AMR in food systems, complementing conventional antimicrobial approaches. Ultimately, this interdisciplinary effort aims to bridge mechanistic insights with translational applications and support sustainable, antibiotic-sparing strategies for AMR mitigation in food contexts.This Research Topic welcomes contributions at the interface of food microbiology, food science, nutrition, and molecular microbiology that address how nutrients and food components influence AMR and how these insights can inform mitigation strategies in food systems. Relevant themes include, but are not limited to:• Nutrient- and food component–driven modulation of resistance gene expression.• Effects of dietary factors and food matrices on horizontal gene transfer and AMR gene dissemination.• Roles of nutrients and bioactives in biofilm formation and persistence of resistant bacteria in food environments.• Bacterial metabolic adaptation in response to diet- and food-derived substrates and its links to AMR and virulence.• Food-based mitigation strategies (e.g., prebiotics, natural preservatives, phytochemicals, and other bioactive compounds) to reduce AMR spread in food systems.• Studies employing molecular, microbiological, and systems-level approaches are encouraged, alongside translational research that evaluates practical, food-based interventions for AMR control.The Research Topic accepts original research articles and reviews that provide mechanistic insights and/or propose actionable strategies relevant to antimicrobial resistance mitigation in food-related contexts. Topic editors: Francesca Maggio, Lia-Mara Ditu Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/77822/nutritional-drivers-of-antimicrobial-resistance-bacterial-responses-resistance-gene-dynamics-and-control-strategies