title: Integrative conjugative elements of the ICEPan family play a potential role in Pantoea ananatis ecological diversification and antibiosis.
abstract: Pantoea ananatis is a highly versatile enterobacterium isolated from diverse environmental sources. The ecological diversity of this species may be attributed, in part, to the acquisition of mobile genetic elements. One such element is an Integrative and Conjugative Element (ICE). By means of in silico analyses the ICE elements belonging to a novel family, ICEPan, were identified in the genome sequences of five P. ananatis strains and characterized. PCR screening showed that ICEPan is prevalent among P. ananatis strains isolated from different environmental sources and geographic locations. Members of the ICEPan family share a common origin with ICEs of other enterobacteria, as well as conjugative plasmids of Erwinia spp. Aside from core modules for ICEPan integration, maintenance and dissemination, the ICEPan contain extensive non-conserved islands coding for proteins that may contribute toward various phenotypes such as stress response and antibiosis, and the highly diverse ICEPan thus plays a major role in the diversification of P. ananatis. An island is furthermore integrated within an ICEPan DNA repair-encoding locus umuDC and we postulate its role in stress-induced dissemination and/or expression of the genes on this island.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa ; Department of Microbiology, University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: Pieter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Maayer
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa ; Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: Wai-Yin
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa ; Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: Douglas A J
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Justus Liebig University Giessen Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blom
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa ; Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: Stephanus N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Venter
authors.affiliation: Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Research Group, Institute of Natural Resource Sciences, Zürich University of Applied Sciences Wädenswil, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Brion
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Duffy
authors.affiliation: Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa ; Department of Genetics, University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: Don A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Cowan
authors.affiliation: Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Research Group, Institute of Natural Resource Sciences, Zürich University of Applied Sciences Wädenswil, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Theo H M
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Smits
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa ; Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: Teresa A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Coutinho
keywords: ICEPan; Pantoea ananatis; antibiosis; integrative and conjugative element; stress response; umuDC