[Bacterial superintegrons, a source of new genes with adaptive functions].
Data on the structural organization of the platform of integrons, gene cassettes, and integrons with integrated cassettes of genes encoding drug resistance are briefly summarized. Data obtained during recent years about superintegrons or chromosomal integrons, characteristics of their organization, the presence of genes with known adaptive and unidentified functions in them, as well as data on the differences between superintegrons and previously described multiple resistance integrons, are considered in more detail. Studies that provide evidence for translocations of gene cassettes from stationary chromosomal integrons into integrons associated with mobile elements resulting in gene flows in natural bacterial populations, which favors their survival and adaptation to changing environment, are also reviewed.
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D000220:Adaptation, Biological / Q000235:genetics*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial / Q000502:physiology*; D032023:Integrons; D011549:Pseudomonas / Q000235:genetics*; D014737:Vibrionaceae / Q000235:genetics*