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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, June 2009, p. 2492-2498, Vol. 53, No. 6
0066-4804/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AAC.00033-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Integron Mobilization Unit as a Source of Mobility of Antibiotic Resistance Genes{triangledown}

Laurent Poirel,1 Amélie Carrër,1 Johann D. Pitout,2 and Patrice Nordmann1*

Service de Bactériologie-Virologie, INSERM U914 Emerging Resistance to Antibiotics, Hôpital de Bicêtre, Assistance Publique/Hôpitaux de Paris, Faculté de Médecine et Université Paris-Sud, K.-Bicêtre, France,1 Division of Microbiology, Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Calgary Laboratory Services, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada2

Received 9 January 2009/ Returned for modification 21 February 2009/ Accepted 21 March 2009

Antibiotic resistance genes are spread mostly through plasmids, integrons (as a form of gene cassettes), and transposons in gram-negative bacteria. We describe here a novel genetic structure, named the integron mobilization unit (IMU), that has characteristics similar to those of miniature inverted transposable elements (MITEs). Two IMUs (288 bp each) were identified from a carbapenem-resistant Enterobacter cloacae isolate that formed a composite structure encompassing a defective class 1 integron containing the carbapenem resistance gene blaGES-5. This ß-lactamase gene was located on a 7-kb IncQ-type plasmid named pCHE-A, which was sequenced completely. The plasmid pCHE-A was not self conjugative but was mobilizable, and it was successfully transferred from E. cloacae to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The in silico analysis of the extremities of the IMU elements identified similarities with those of insertion sequence ISSod9 from Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. The mobilization of the IMU composite structure was accomplished by using the transposase activity of ISSod9 that was provided in trans. This is the first identification of MITE-type structures as a source of gene mobilization, implicating here a clinically relevant antibiotic resistance gene.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Service de Bactériologie-Virologie-Hygiène, Hôpital de Bicêtre, 78 rue de Général Leclerc, 94275 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre Cedex, France. Phone: 33-1-45-21-36-32. Fax: 33-1-45-21-63-40. E-mail: nordmann.patrice{at}bct.aphp.fr

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 30 March 2009.

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, June 2009, p. 2492-2498, Vol. 53, No. 6
0066-4804/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AAC.00033-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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  • Gillings, M. R., Labbate, M., Sajjad, A., Giguere, N. J., Holley, M. P., Stokes, H. W. (2009). Mobilization of a Tn402-Like Class 1 Integron with a Novel Cassette Array via Flanking Miniature Inverted-Repeat Transposable Element-Like Structures. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75: 6002-6004 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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