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Published on: August 18, 2023
The current ICE age: biology and evolution of SXT-related integrating conjugative elements
Vincent Burrus1, Joeli Marrero, Matthew K Waldor
1Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Boston, MA 02111, USA.
Abstract:
SXT is an integrating conjugative element (ICE) that was initially isolated from a 1992 Vibrio cholerae O139 clinical isolate from India. This approximately 100-kb ICE encodes resistance to multiple antibiotics. SXT or closely related ICEs are now present in most clinical and some environmental V. cholerae isolates from Asia and Africa. SXT-related ICEs are not limited to V. cholerae. It is now clear that so-called IncJ elements such as R391 are closely related to SXT. More than 25 members of the SXT/R391 family of ICEs have now been identified in environmental and clinical isolates of diverse species of gamma-proteobacteria worldwide. In this review, we discuss the diversity, evolution and biology of this family of ICEs.
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