Mobile integrons encode phage defense systems

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kieffer, Nicolas; Hipolito, Alberto; Ortiz-Miravalles, Laura; Blanco, Paula; Delobelle, Thomas; Vizuete, Patricia; Ojeda, Francisco Manuel; Jove, Thomas; Jurenas, Dukas; Garcia-Quintanilla, Meritxell; Carvalho, Andre; Domingo-Calap, Pilar; Escudero, Jose Antonio
• 署名单位: Complutense University of Madrid; Complutense University of Madrid; CHU Limoges; Universite de Limoges; Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (Inserm); Fundacion Jimenez Diaz; Instituto de Salud Carlos III; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (Inserm)
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-12383
• DOI: 10.1126/science.ads0915
• 发表日期: 2025-05-08
• 关键词: immune-systems; gene cassettes; bacterial; site; adaptation; diversity; EVOLUTION; features; islands

摘要

Integrons are bacterial genetic elements that capture, stockpile, and modulate the expression of genes encoded in integron cassettes. Mobile integrons (MIs) are borne on plasmids, acting as a vehicle for hundreds of antimicrobial resistance genes among key pathogens. These elements also carry gene cassettes of unknown function (gcus) whose role and adaptive value remain unexplored. In this work, we show that gcus encode phage resistance systems, many of which are newly discovered. Bacteriophage resistance integron cassettes (BRiCs) can be combined and mixed with resistance cassettes to produce multiphage or drug and phage resistance. The fitness costs of BRiCs are variable and dependent on the genetic context and can be modulated by changing the order of cassettes in the array. Hence, MIs act as highly mobile, low-cost defense islands.