AMR is adversely affecting the antimicrobial treatment regime in infectious diseases. It has emerged as a serious threat to human, animal and environmental health, healthcare systems and global economy [
1]. It has been predicted that by 2050 100% drug-resistant infections will claim 10.2 million working-age lives per year if the AMR crisis is not reverted [
1]. The problem has spread among gram-positive and gram negative bacteria. Multi-drug resistant
Staphylococcus aureus,
Enterococcus sp.,
Mycobacterium tuberculosis,
Pseudomonas sp.,
Acinetobacter sp.,
Salmonella enterica,
Streptococcus pneumoniae,
Klebsiella pneumoniae, third-generation cephalosporin resistant
Neisseria gonorrhoeae have emerged as critical threats [
2,
3]. The misuse, overuse and the application of sub-lethal doses of antibiotics in farms, aquaculture, animal husbandry which initiated a farm-to-fork transmission of contaminating antibiotics, and also in clinical and veterinary practice, leakage of antibiotics into the natural environment preparing the ground for selection of antibiotic resistant bacteria are few of the multiple causes of AMR [
4‐
6]. In developing countries, the major stimuli for AMR are lack of surveillance of AMR, poor quality of antibiotics, lack of regulatory guidelines and control on the sale and use of antibiotics resulting in the ease of their availability and clinical misuse often leading to prescription of wrong antimicrobials due to poor quality diagnosis and also administration of antimicrobials to patients even when not required [
4]. These practices have resulted in critical AMR challenge in usage of fluoroquinolones, macrolides, third-generation cephalosporins and carbapenems and other classes of antibiotics in humans [
2]. The major concern in agricultural and veterinary practice includes the medication of animals with antimicrobials that are used to treat infections in humans, pollution of the aquatic ecosystem from farm spillage and inadequate treatment of wastewater leading to incomplete breakdown of the antimicrobial compounds [
6,
7]. Severe resistance against the major antibiotics including colistin and third-generation cephalosporins considered to be critical prophylactic agents has emerged among food-producing animals [
7]. Fervent implementations are ongoing to mutilate the threat and curb the consequences. Antimicrobial resistance surveillance programs like NARMS and One Health Surveillance are the urgent need of the hour [
8,
9]. Regulation of over-the-counter sale of drugs and antibiotic consumption can impede the growing threat of AMR progress. Research for finding alternative and effective drugs requires strong attention as AMR against available major classes of antibiotics has resulted as an aftermath of radical anthropogenic usage of these common drugs. Bacteria develop resistance when they acquire ARGs from related or distant species by horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Most of these genes are borne on mobile genetic elements (MGEs) like plasmids, integrons and transposons. The genetic recombination mechanisms helping in HGT and playing the pivotal role in the development of AMR among different bacterial species include conjugation, transduction and transformation. In addition, other mechanisms contributing to bacterial resistance to antibiotics include mutation in cellular genes, physical alteration or enzymatic degradation of the antibiotic by bacterial enzymes, active efflux of the antibiotic with the help of bacterial efflux proteins, mutation of the active target site of antimicrobial action, or a decrease in cell wall permeability. ARGs may originate in the environment or in the gut ecosystem [
10‐
16]. It is often not just a single organism contributing to the origin and transmission of ARGs but a complex microbial community at play. The evolution of the concept of microbiome has established the understanding that outcome of disease, disease progression, antimicrobial resistance are all regulated by the microbiome. Most of the ARGs have their roots in commensals that form an integral part of the microbiome [
17,
18] and contribute to the antimicrobial resistome [
19].