High Prevalence of Integrative and Conjugative Elements Encoding Transcription Activator-Like Effector Repeats in Mycoplasma hominis.

ABSTRACT: Integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) are modular mobile genetic elements that can disseminate through excision, circularization, and transfer. Mycoplasma ICEs have recently been found distributed among some mycoplasma species and there is accumulating evidence that they play a pivotal role in horizontal gene transfers. The occurrence of ICEs has not been documented in Mycoplasma hominis, a human urogenital pathogen responsible for urogenital infections, neonatal infections and extragenital infections. In this study, we searched for, characterized, and compared ICEs by genome analyses of 12 strains of M. hominis. ICEs of 27-30 kb were found in one or two copies in seven of the 12 M. hominis strains sequenced. Only five of these ICEs seemed to be functional, as as

SUBMITTER: Meygret A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6813540 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature