Plasmid typing challenges in the era of genomic antimicrobial resistance surveillance.

Diverse plasmid clustering tools emphasize different signals, each encoding a distinct notion of plasmid distance, complicating antimicrobial resistance surveillance.

• Why it matters: Plasmids play a key role in spreading antimicrobial resistance, but their highly recombinogenic genomes challenge consistent comparison and tracking across studies, hindering effective surveillance.
• What they did: The review categorizes existing clustering tools into conceptual families based on their assumptions, highlighting how these influence surveillance outcomes, and proposes hierarchical, multitool strategies for better comparison.
• The result: Implementing clearer models of plasmid evolution and combined approaches may enable scalable, interpretable plasmid-based antimicrobial resistance surveillance.