MMBR Figure table search 04
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Liebert, C. A.
Right arrow Articles by Summers, A. O.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Liebert, C. A.
Right arrow Articles by Summers, A. O.

Next Article 

Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, September 1999, p. 507-522, Vol. 63, No. 3
1092-2172/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Transposon Tn21, Flagship of the Floating Genome

Cynthia A. Liebert,1 Ruth M. Hall,2 and Anne O. Summers1,*

Department of Microbiology, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2605,1 and CSIRO Molecular Science, North Ryde, New South Wales 1690, Australia2

The transposon Tn21 and a group of closely related transposons (the Tn21 family) are involved in the global dissemination of antibiotic resistance determinants in gram-negative facultative bacteria. The molecular basis for their involvement is carriage by the Tn21 family of a mobile DNA element (the integron) encoding a site-specific system for the acquisition of multiple antibiotic resistance genes. The paradigm example, Tn21, also carries genes for its own transposition and a mercury resistance (mer) operon. We have compiled the entire 19,671-bp sequence of Tn21 and assessed the possible origins and functions of the genes it contains. Our assessment adds molecular detail to previous models of the evolution of Tn21 and is consistent with the insertion of the integron In2 into an ancestral Tn501-like mer transposon. Codon usage analysis indicates distinct host origins for the ancestral mer operon, the integron, and the gene cassette and two insertion sequences which lie within the integron. The sole gene of unknown function in the integron, orf5, resembles a puromycin-modifying enzyme from an antibiotic producing bacterium. A possible seventh gene in the mer operon (merE), perhaps with a role in Hg(II) transport, lies in the junction between the integron and the mer operon. Analysis of the region interrupted by insertion of the integron suggests that the putative transposition regulator, tnpM, is the C-terminal vestige of a tyrosine kinase sensor present in the ancestral mer transposon. The extensive dissemination of the Tn21 family may have resulted from the fortuitous association of a genetic element for accumulating multiple antibiotic resistances (the integron) with one conferring resistance to a toxic metal at a time when clinical, agricultural, and industrial practices were rapidly increasing the exposure to both types of selective agents. The compendium offered here will provide a reference point for ongoing observations of related elements in multiply resistant strains emerging worldwide.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-2605. Phone: (706) 542-2669. Fax: (706) 542-6140. E-mail: Summers{at}ARCHES.UGA.EDU.


Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, September 1999, p. 507-522, Vol. 63, No. 3
1092-2172/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:




Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
Appl. Environ. Microbiol. Infect. Immun. Eukaryot. Cell
Mol. Cell. Biol. J. Virol. J. Bacteriol.
ALL ASM JOURNALS

Copyright © 1999 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.