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Journal of Bacteriology, May 2004, p. 2636-2645, Vol. 186, No. 9
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.9.2636-2645.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Formation of SXT Tandem Arrays and SXT-R391 Hybrids

Vincent Burrus and Matthew K. Waldor*

Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, Massachusetts 02111

Received 19 November 2003/ Accepted 23 January 2004

SXT is an integrative and conjugative element (ICE) isolated from Vibrio cholerae. This ~100-kb ICE encodes resistance to multiple antibiotics and integrates site specifically into the chromosome. SXT excises from the chromosome to form a circular but nonreplicative extrachromosomal molecule that is required for its transfer. Here we found that a significant fraction of freshly isolated SXT exconjugants contained tandem SXT arrays. There was heterogeneity in the size of the SXT arrays detected in single exconjugant colonies. Some arrays consisted of more than five SXTs arranged in tandem. These extended arrays were unstable and did not persist during serial passages. The mechanism accounting for the generation of SXT arrays is unknown; however, array formation was not dependent upon recA and appeared to depend on conjugative transfer. While such arrays did not alter the transfer frequency of wild-type SXT, they partially complemented the transfer deficiency of a {Delta}xis SXT mutant, which is ordinarily unable to generate the extrachromosomal intermediate required for SXT transfer. Exconjugants derived from donor strains that harbored tandem arrays of SXT and R391, an SXT-related element, contained functional hybrid elements that arose from recA-independent recombination between the two ICEs. Thus, arrays of SXT-related elements promote the creation of novel ICEs.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Jaharis 425, 136 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA 02111. Phone: (617) 636-2730. Fax: (617) 636-2723. E-mail: matthew.waldor{at}tufts.edu.

Journal of Bacteriology, May 2004, p. 2636-2645, Vol. 186, No. 9
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.9.2636-2645.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Ceccarelli, D., Daccord, A., Rene, M., Burrus, V. (2008). Identification of the Origin of Transfer (oriT) and a New Gene Required for Mobilization of the SXT/R391 Family of Integrating Conjugative Elements. J. Bacteriol. 190: 5328-5338 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Osorio, C. R., Marrero, J., Wozniak, R. A. F., Lemos, M. L., Burrus, V., Waldor, M. K. (2008). Genomic and Functional Analysis of ICEPdaSpa1, a Fish-Pathogen-Derived SXT-Related Integrating Conjugative Element That Can Mobilize a Virulence Plasmid. J. Bacteriol. 190: 3353-3361 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Burrus, V., Quezada-Calvillo, R., Marrero, J., Waldor, M. K. (2006). SXT-Related Integrating Conjugative Element in New World Vibrio cholerae. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72: 3054-3057 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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