Diversity of Class 1 Integron Gene Cassette Rearrangements Selected under Antibiotic Pressure.

ABSTRACT:

Unlabelled

Integrons are bacterial genetic elements able to capture and express genes contained within mobile gene cassettes. Gene cassettes are expressed via a Pc promoter and can be excised from or integrated into the integron by integrase IntI. Although the mechanisms of gene cassette integration and excision are well known, the kinetics and modes of gene cassette shuffling leading to new gene cassette arrays remain puzzling. It has been proposed that under antibiotic selective pressure, IntI-mediated rearrangements can generate integron variants in which a weakly expressed gene cassette moves closer to Pc, thus leading to higher-level resistance. To test this hypothesis, we used an integron with four gene cassettes, intI1-aac(6')-Ib-dfrA15-aadA1-catB9, and applied selective pre

SUBMITTER: Barraud O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4455274 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature