Genomic sequences of bacteria carrying mobile metal resistance genes

Several transition metals have antiseptics or antibiotic properties when used alone or combined with organic compounds. Bacteria can develop resistance to such metals and their organic compounds or complexes. Resistances to such metal-organics are often found on mobile genetic elements including plasmids and transposons where they are also linked to arrays of genes for resistances to important antibiotics. Exposure to a metal alone can co-select for genetically linked antibiotic multi-resistance. We use bioinformatics to compare and contrast this co-selection phenomenon for several widely used metals.