title: Integrative mobile elements exploiting Xer recombination.
abstract: Integrative mobile genetic elements directly participate in the rapid response of bacteria to environmental challenges. They generally encode their own dedicated recombination machineries. CTXφ, a ﬁlamentous bacteriophage that harbors the genes encoding cholera toxin in Vibrio cholerae provided the first notable exception to this rule: it hijacks XerC and XerD, two chromosome-encoded tyrosine recombinases for lysogenic conversion. XerC and XerD are highly conserved in bacteria because of their role in the topological maintenance of circular chromosomes and, with the advent of high throughput sequencing, numerous other integrative mobile elements exploiting them have been discovered. Here, we review our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of integration of the different integrative mobile elements exploiting Xer (IMEXs) so far described.
authors.affiliation: CNRS, Centre de Génétique Moléculaire, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Bhabatosh
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Das
authors.forename: Eriel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Midonet
authors.forename: François-Xavier
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Barre
mesh_terms: D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000235:genetics; D002772:Cholera Toxin / Q000235:genetics; D019426:Integrases / Q000378:metabolism*; D020071:Interspersed Repetitive Sequences; D008242:Lysogeny; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D014734:Vibrio cholerae / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D002772:Cholera Toxin; D019426:Integrases