Characterization of a relaxase belonging to the MOB family, a widespread family in Firmicutes mediating the transfer of ICEs.

Fiche publication

Date publication

janvier 2019

Journal

Mobile DNA

Auteurs

Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Dr DEVIGNES Marie-Dominique

Tous les auteurs :
Soler N, Robert E, Chauvot de Beauchêne I, Monteiro P, Libante V, Maigret B, Staub J, Ritchie DW, Guédon G, Payot S, Devignes MD, Leblond-Bourget N

Lien Pubmed

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31073337

Résumé

Conjugative spread of antibiotic resistance and virulence genes in bacteria constitutes an important threat to public health. Beyond the well-known conjugative plasmids, recent genome analyses have shown that integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) are the most widespread conjugative elements, even if their transfer mechanism has been little studied until now. The initiator of conjugation is the relaxase, a protein catalyzing a site-specific nick on the origin of transfer () of the ICE. Besides canonical relaxases, recent studies revealed non-canonical ones, such as relaxases of the MOB family that are related to rolling-circle replication proteins of the family. MOB relaxases are encoded by ICEs of the ICE/ICE/Tn superfamily, a superfamily widespread in Firmicutes, and frequently conferring antibiotic resistance.