Fig. 1: The abundance and global distribution of the AS resistomes.

a Map of the sampling locations. b Average relative ARG abundance (copy of ARGs per cell) across different continents based on resistance mechanism, drug class, and the nine most abundant ARGs. MLS: macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin. c Richness of the ARGs. Richness index was calculated based on a rarified matrix of resistance gene coverage, which was rounded and subsampled to the lowest sample’s level. In the boxplots, hinges show the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles. The upper whisker extends to the largest value no more than 1.5 * IQR from the upper hinge, where IQR is the interquartile range between the 25% and 75% quartiles; the lower whisker extends to the smallest value at most 1.5 * IQR from the lower hinge. Sample size: n = 6, 59, 14, 20, 106, and 21 samples for Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America, and South America, respectively. Significant differences (Dunn’s test with two-sided p-values adjusted by the Bonferroni method < 0.05) between continent pairs are indicated in the plot. d Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) reveals distinct ARG composition diversity in six continents. e PCoA reveals distinct ARG diversity in different environments. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.