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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, April 2001, p. 1263-1270, Vol. 45, No. 4
0066-4804/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AAC.45.4.1263-1270.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Transposons Tn1696 and Tn21 and Their Integrons In4 and In2 Have Independent Origins

Sally R. Partridge,1,2 Heidi J. Brown,1,2 H. W. Stokes,2 and Ruth M. Hall1,*

Sydney Laboratory, CSIRO Molecular Science, North Ryde 2113,1 and Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University Sydney, Sydney 2109,2 Australia

Received 12 September 2000/Returned for modification 9 January 2001/Accepted 24 January 2001

The first 13.6 kb of the mercury and multidrug resistance transposon Tn1696, which includes the class 1 integron In4, has been sequenced. In4 is 8.33 kb long and contains the 5'-conserved segment (5'-CS) and 2.24 kb of the 3'-conserved segment (3'-CS) flanking four integrated cassettes. The 3'-CS region is followed by one full copy and an adjacent partial copy of the insertion sequence IS6100 flanked, in inverse orientation, by two short segments (123 and 152 bp) from the outer right-hand end of class 1 integrons. This structure is representative of a distinct group of class 1 integrons that differs from In2, found in Tn21, and other related class 1 integrons. In4 does not include transposition genes but is bounded by characteristic 25-bp inverted repeats and flanked by a direct duplication of 5 bp of the target sequence, indicating that it was inserted by a transpositional mechanism. In4 lies between the resII and resI sites of a backbone mercury resistance transposon which is >99.5% identical to Tn5036. Although Tn21 and Tn1696 are both classified as members of the Tn21 subfamily of the Tn3 transposon family, the backbone mercury resistance transposons are only 79 to 96% identical. Tn21 also contains a region of about 0.7 kb not found in Tn1696. The integrons In2 and In4 carrying the antibiotic resistance genes have been inserted at different locations into distinct ancestral mercury resistance transposons. Thus, Tn21 and Tn1696 have independent histories and origins. Other transposons (Tn1403 and Tn1412) that include a class 1 integron also have independent origins. In all except Tn21, the integron is located within the res region of the backbone transposon.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: CSIRO Molecular Science, Sydney Laboratory, P.O. Box 184, North Ryde, NSW 1670, Australia. Phone: 61-2-9490 5162. Fax: 61-2-9490 5005. E-mail: ruth.hall{at}molsci.csiro.au.

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, April 2001, p. 1263-1270, Vol. 45, No. 4
0066-4804/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AAC.45.4.1263-1270.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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