Integrative and Conjugative Elements (ICEs): What They Do and How They Work

Horizontal gene transfer plays a major role in microbial evolution, allowing microbes to acquire new genes and phenotypes. Integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs, a.k.a. conjugative transposons) are modular mobile genetic elements integrated into a host genome and are passively propagated during...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Grossman, Alan Davis (Contributor), Johnson, Christopher M (Contributor)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology (Contributor), Grossman Alan D (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Annual Reviews, 2017-03-27T17:42:47Z.
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Online Access:Get fulltext
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100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology  |e contributor 
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100 1 0 |a Grossman, Alan Davis  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Johnson, Christopher M  |e contributor 
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520 |a Horizontal gene transfer plays a major role in microbial evolution, allowing microbes to acquire new genes and phenotypes. Integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs, a.k.a. conjugative transposons) are modular mobile genetic elements integrated into a host genome and are passively propagated during chromosomal replication and cell division. Induction of ICE gene expression leads to excision, production of the conserved conjugation machinery (a type IV secretion system), and the potential to transfer DNA to appropriate recipients. ICEs typically contain cargo genes that are not usually related to the ICE life cycle and that confer phenotypes to host cells. We summarize the life cycle and discovery of ICEs, some of the regulatory mechanisms, and how the types of cargo have influenced our view of ICEs. We discuss how ICEs can acquire new cargo genes and describe challenges to the field and various perspectives on ICE biology. 
520 |a National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U.S.) (grant GM050895) 
546 |a en_US 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t Annual Review of Genetics