title: Integron cassette insertion: a recombination process involving a folded single strand substrate.
abstract: Integrons play a major role in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes among Gram-negative pathogens. Integron gene cassettes form circular intermediates carrying a recombination site, attC, and insert into an integron platform at a second site, attI, in a reaction catalyzed by an integron-specific integrase IntI. The IntI1 integron integrase preferentially binds to the 'bottom strand' of single-stranded attC. We have addressed the insertion mechanism in vivo using a recombination assay exploiting plasmid conjugation to exclusively deliver either the top or bottom strand of different integrase recombination substrates. Recombination of a single-stranded attC site with an attI site was 1000-fold higher for one strand than for the other. Conversely, following conjugative transfer of either attI strand, recombination with attC is highly unfavorable. These results and those obtained using mutations within a putative attC stem-and-loop strongly support a novel integron cassette insertion model in which the single bottom attC strand adopts a folded structure generating a double strand recombination site. Thus, recombination would insert a single strand cassette, which must be subsequently processed.
authors.affiliation: Unité Postulante Plasticité du Génome Bactérien, CNRS URA 2171, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bouvier
authors.forename: Gaëlle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Demarre
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mazel
mesh_terms: D001287:Attachment Sites, Microbiological; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D002384:Catalysis; D004351:Drug Resistance; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000378:metabolism; D019426:Integrases / Q000737:chemistry; D032023:Integrons; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry; D010957:Plasmids / Q000378:metabolism; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011485:Protein Binding; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014443:Tyrosine / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D009841:Oligonucleotides; D014443:Tyrosine; D019426:Integrases