Genomic islands: tools of bacterial horizontal gene transfer and evolution

By Mario Juhas, J. R. van der Meer, M. Gaillard, R. Harding, D. Hood, D. Crook. FEMS Microbiology Reviews, 2008

916 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Bacterial genomes evolve through mutations, rearrangements or horizontal gene transfer. Besides the core genes encoding essential metabolic functions, bacterial genomes also harbour a number of accessory genes acquired by horizontal gene transfer that might be beneficial under certain environmental conditions. The horizontal gene transfer contributes to the diversification and adaptation of microorganisms, thus having an impact on the genome plasticity. A significant part of the horizontal gene transfer is or has been facilitated by genomic islands (GEIs). GEIs are discrete DNA segments, some of which are mobile and others which are not, or are no longer mobile, which differ among closely related strains. A number of GEIs are capable of integration into the chromosome of the host, excision, and transfer to a new host by transformation, conjugation or transduction. GEIs play a crucial role in the evolution of a broad spectrum of bacteria as they are involved in the dissemination of variable genes, including antibiotic resistance and virulence genes leading to generation of hospital ‘superbugs’, as well as catabolic genes leading to formation of new metabolic pathways. Depending on the composition of gene modules, the same type of GEIs can promote survival of pathogenic as well as environmental bacteria.

Subfields: Endocrinology, Genetics, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9a08038891684823a867d2e03a710d73eabf79a1

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In Endocrinology

1. M. Gillings
2. H. Stokes
3. C. Alvarez-Martinez
4. L. Wanner
5. P. Christie
6. R. Aminov
7. D. Larsson
8. R. Reda

In Genetics

1. H. Stokes
2. Gary D. Wu
3. A. M. Eren
4. Tom O. Delmont
5. M. Gillings
6. P. Christie
7. R. Aminov

In Molecular Biology

1. M. Gillings
2. Min Wu
3. H. Stokes
4. L. Wanner
5. F. Cabello
6. James D. Lewis
7. Jun Chen
8. Gary D. Wu

Citations in the corpus

• Biological Diversity of Prokaryotic Type IV Secretion Systems (2009, background): “The second set of conjugative elements, originally termed “conjugative transposons” and more recently termed “integrative and conjugative elements” (ICEs), are also present in many bacterial and archaeal species (40, 41, 150, 151, 152, 240, 260).”
• Gene flow, mobile genetic elements and the recruitment of antibiotic resistance genes into Gram-negative pathogens. (2011, background): “…the global spread of resistance genes (Walsh, 2006) and is contributing to the evolution of multidrug-resistant pathogens with enhanced virulence, via the accumulation of disparate virulence factors in pathogenicity islands (Juhas et al., 2009) and virulence plasmids (Villa & Carattoli, 2005).”
• Antimicrobial use in aquaculture re-examined: its relevance to antimicrobial resistance and to animal and human health. (2013, background): “…et al., 2009; Cambray et al., 2010; Daccord et al., 2010; Rosewarne et al., 2010; Wozniak and Waldor, 2010), genomic islands (Boyd et al., 2002; 2008; Juhas et al., 2009; Daccord et al., 2010; Le Hello et al., 2011), transposons and con- jugative transposons (Rhodes et al., 2000; Knapp et al.,…”
• Horizontal Gene Exchange in Environmental Microbiota (2011, background): “Another, even more radical, proposal was to bring a number of MGEs under the umbrella of genomic islands (GEIs; Juhas et al., 2009).”
• Linking pangenomes and metagenomes: the Prochlorococcus metapangenome (2018, background): “The vast majority of isolate and single-amplified genomes contain only a subset of the complete set of genes microbial populations maintain within their niche boundaries ( Parkhill et al., 2000 ; Coleman et al., 2006 ; Juhas et al., 2009 ; Coleman & Chisholm, 2010 ).”
• The human gut virome: inter-individual variation and dynamic response to diet. (2011, background): “Transmissible antibiotic resistance is believed to involve primarily mobilization by plasmids and transposons (Barlow 2009; Juhas et al. 2009)—our results indicate that the role of mobilization by phage may deserve further investigation.”
• In Search of Better Management of Potato Common Scab (2012, background): “Horizontal transfer of plasmids, bacteriophages, transposons, integrative conjugative elements (ICEs), and genomic islands are important mechanisms of bacterial evolution (Juhas et al. 2009), and there is considerable evidence that these transfer mechanisms operate in Streptomyces (Combes et al.”
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa: pathogenesis, virulence factors, antibiotic resistance, interaction with host, technology advances and emerging therapeutics (2022, result): “For the genetic island containing T4SS, there is a discrepancy: whether a conjugation mechanism exists but this is likely related to differences between strains.(152) Nevertheless, there are relatively limited studies of this system compared to other secretion systems such as T3SS.”