Jump to content

Integron: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Content deleted Content added
No edit summary
Line 13: Line 13:
*[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9835490&dopt=Abstract NCBI Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1998 Dec;42(12):3053-8.] article ''Class 1 integron-borne multiple-antibiotic resistance carried by IncFI and IncL/M plasmids in Salmonella enterica serotype typhimurium
*[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9835490&dopt=Abstract NCBI Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1998 Dec;42(12):3053-8.] article ''Class 1 integron-borne multiple-antibiotic resistance carried by IncFI and IncL/M plasmids in Salmonella enterica serotype typhimurium
*[http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1462 Nature Reviews Microbiology 4, 608-620.] Mazel, D. Integrons: agents of bacterial evolution
*[http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1462 Nature Reviews Microbiology 4, 608-620.] Mazel, D. Integrons: agents of bacterial evolution
Superintegrons is an incorrect term to call an integron platform associated with long cassette arrays. Most of the integron platforms that contain hundreds of gene cassettes such as in Vibrio cholerae are found as par of the bacterial chromosome. Therefore the integron nomeclature that depicts them should be as chromosomal integrons and not superintegrons and those that mobilise on plasmids or transposons and contain small numbers of gene cassettes or no gene cassettes as mobile integrons.


==Sources==
==Sources==

Revision as of 14:46, 24 April 2010

An integron is a two component gene capture and dissemination system, initially discovered in relation to antibiotic resistance, and which is found in plasmids, chromosomes and transposons. The first component consists of a gene encoding a site specific recombinase along with a specific site for recombination, while the second component comprises fragments of DNA called gene cassettes which can be incorporated or shuffled.

An integron with a large number of cassettes may be called a super-integron, as in Vibrio cholerae chromosome 2. A cassette may encode genes for antibiotic resistance, although most genes in integrons are uncharacterized. An integron contains an integrase (int1) related to those of a phage, followed by an attI site for integration of cassettes and recognition of the integrase [1], and a promoter to drive expression. An integron may appear in a plasmid or on the chromosome. An attC sequence (also called 59-be) is a repeat that flanks cassettes and enables cassettes to be integrated at the attI site, excised and undergo horizontal gene transfer.

A functional integron "platform" requires[2]:

  • an integrase: intI, a tyrosine recombinase responsible for incorporation into the genome
  • a proximal recombination site: attI, which acts as the locus for reincorporation to the genome. It combines with a attC site at the insertion site.

Further reading

Superintegrons is an incorrect term to call an integron platform associated with long cassette arrays. Most of the integron platforms that contain hundreds of gene cassettes such as in Vibrio cholerae are found as par of the bacterial chromosome. Therefore the integron nomeclature that depicts them should be as chromosomal integrons and not superintegrons and those that mobilise on plasmids or transposons and contain small numbers of gene cassettes or no gene cassettes as mobile integrons.

Sources

References

  1. ^ Hall,R.M., Collis, C.M. (1995)Mobile gene cassettes and integrons:capture and spread of genes by site-specific recombinationMol Microbiol Feb;15(4):593-600.
  2. ^ Mobile Gene Cassettes and Integrons, Kovalevskaya, Molecular Biology, Vol 36 No 2