A Glimpse into the World of Integrative and Mobilizable Elements in Streptococci Reveals an Unexpected Diversity and Novel Families of Mobilization Proteins.

ABSTRACT: Recent analyses of bacterial genomes have shown that integrated elements that transfer by conjugation play an essential role in horizontal gene transfer. Among these elements, the integrative and mobilizable elements (IMEs) are known to encode their own excision and integration machinery, and to carry all the sequences or genes necessary to hijack the mating pore of a conjugative element for their own transfer. However, knowledge of their prevalence and diversity is still severely lacking. In this work, an extensive analysis of 124 genomes from 27 species of Streptococcus reveals 144 IMEs. These IMEs encode either tyrosine or serine integrases. The identification of IME boundaries shows that 141 are specifically integrated in 17 target sites. The IME-encoded relaxases belong to nine

SUBMITTER: Coluzzi C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5357655 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature