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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 10, 2026

Screening Foodstuffs for Class 1 Integrons and Gene Cassettes

Screening Foodstuffs for Class 1 Integrons and Gene Cassettes

Published on: June 19, 2015

Integrons.

Guillaume Cambray¹, Anne-Marie Guerout, Didier Mazel

¹Institut Pasteur, Unité Plasticité du Génome Bactérien, Département Génomes et Génétique, F-75015 Paris, France.

Annual Review of Genetics

|August 17, 2010

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Integrons are mobile genetic elements that capture genes, notably antibiotic resistance genes in bacteria. This review explores their mechanisms, chromosomal roles, and regulation by the SOS response.

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Site-specific Bacterial Chromosome Engineering: ΦC31 Integrase Mediated Cassette Exchange (IMCE)

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Area of Science:

Microbiology
Genetics
Molecular Biology

Background:

Integrons are genetic elements known for acquiring and rearranging open reading frames (ORFs) into gene cassettes.
Initially identified in Gram-negative bacteria for antibiotic resistance gene capture, their role has expanded with the discovery of chromosomal integrons (CIs).

Purpose of the Study:

To review the genetic resources within integrons.
To elucidate their unique recombination mechanisms and regulatory processes controlling cassette dynamics.
To discuss the role of toxin/antitoxin (TA) cassettes in stabilizing large arrays in superintegrons.

Main Methods:

Literature review focusing on integron structure, function, and regulation.
Analysis of existing data on integron-associated genes and recombination mechanisms.
Exploration of the role of single-stranded DNA and the SOS response in integron dynamics.

Main Results:

Integrons facilitate the acquisition and expression of functional genes, including antibiotic resistance determinants.
Chromosomal integrons are widespread in bacterial genomes, carrying diverse gene cassettes.
Toxin/antitoxin cassettes are crucial for stabilizing extensive gene arrays in superintegrons.

Conclusions:

Integrons are key players in bacterial genome evolution and adaptation, particularly in acquiring resistance traits.
The regulation of integron integrase expression by the SOS response highlights a link to DNA damage responses.
Single-stranded DNA plays a critical role in the dynamic behavior of integron cassettes.