Adaptive and Evolutionary Aspects of Integrons
A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Microbiology and Immunology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 20956
Special Issue Editors
Interests: antibiotic resistance; integrin; adaptation; Evolution; innovation; recombination
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues
Integrons are bacterial genetic elements that provide their host with enhanced evolvability. They do so by capturing and stockpiling small mobile genetic elements called integron cassettes, that bring novel functions to the host. Integrons are ancient structures naturally found in the chromosomes of roughly 10% of bacterial species associated to countless cassettes. A handful of integrons managed to reach our hospitals after being transposed onto conjugative plasmids, bringing antibiotic resistance cassettes as a cargo and triggering the rise of multidrug resistance in the 50’s. Integrons are now commonplace in clinical isolates worldwide and are generally regarded as major resistance determinants in the most dangerous Gram-negative pathogens.
Although the role that integrons play in the adaptation of environmental bacteria is a major issue that has been less explored, the prevalence and importance of these elements among clinical isolates is a testimony to the adaptive value they provide to their bacterial hosts. Part of this value comes from the streamlining of integrons to become subtly coupled to bacterial physiology, providing adaptation on demand. How such a nifty and unique piece of genetic equipment has originated is a story of evolutionary innovation that is only starting to be unveiled.
The aim of this Special issue of Microorganisms is to gather new data that highlight the adaptive value of integrons in all environments -including the clinical setting- as well as to provide a deeper view on the possible evolutionary origins of these structures.
Dr. Jose A. Escudero
Dr. Céline Loot
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- Antibiotic Resistance
- Integron
- Evolution
- Adaptation
- Recombination
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