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Journal of Bacteriology, August 2008, p. 5318-5327, Vol. 190, No. 15
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00199-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

A Class 1 Integron Present in a Human Commensal Has a Hybrid Transposition Module Compared to Tn402: Evidence of Interaction with Mobile DNA from Natural Environments ^,

Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

Received 7 February 2008/ Accepted 15 May 2008

In a survey of class 1 integrons from human stools, an unusual class 1 integron from a strain of Enterobacter cloacae was isolated and characterized in detail. Sequence analysis of a fosmid containing the class 1 integron revealed a complex set of transposons which included two Tn402-like transposons. One of these transposons, Tn6007, included a class 1 integron with two non-antibiotic-resistance-type gene cassettes and a complete transposition module. This tni module is a hybrid with a boundary within the res site compared to Tn402, implying that a site-specific recombination event generated either Tn6007 or Tn402. The second Tn402-like transposon, Tn6008, possesses neither a mer operon nor an integron, and most of its tni module has been deleted. Tn6007, Tn6008, and the 2,478 bases between them, collectively designated Tn6006, have transposed into a Tn5036/Tn3926-like transposon as a single unit. Tn6006, Tn6007, and Tn6008 could all transpose as discrete entities. Database analysis also revealed that a version of Tn6008 was present in the genome of Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria. Overall, the E. cloacae isolate further demonstrated that functional class 1 integrons/transposons are probably common in bacterial communities and have the potential to add substantially to the problem of multidrug-resistant nosocomial infections.

Published ahead of print on 23 May 2008.

Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.