Disease relevance of Genomic Islands

• The clc genomic island is a 105 kb integrative and conjugative element (ICE) in Pseudomonas sp. strain B13, which encodes metabolism of 3-chlorocatechol [1].
• Through the search for genes upregulated at low growth temperatures in Yersinia enterocolitica strain W22703, a genomic island of 19 kb termed tc-PAI(Ye) with homologues of the toxin genes tcaA, tcaB, tcaC and tccC was identified [2].
• The symbiosis island of Mesorhizobium loti strain R7A contains genes with strong similarity to the structural vir genes (virB1-11; virD4) of Agrobacterium tumefaciens that encode the type IV secretion system (T4SS) required for T-DNA transfer to plants [3].
• Multidrug-resistant Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium definitive phage type 104 (DT104) strains harbor a genomic island, called Salmonella genomic island 1 (SGI1), which contains an antibiotic resistance gene cluster conferring resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, florfenicol, streptomycin, sulfonamides, and tetracyclines [4].
• The lda region is part of a putative 26-kb genomic island inserted into the proP gene of the E. coli chromosome [5].

High impact information on Genomic Islands

• The combination of allelic forms of genomic islands is the genetic basis that determines the pathogenicity of medically important phenotypes of S aureus, including those of community-acquired MRSA strains [6].
• Although a high degree of similarity exists between the two sequenced Pseudomonads, 976 protein-encoding genes are unique to Pss B728a when compared with Pst DC3000, including large genomic islands likely to contribute to virulence and host specificity [7].
• Although gene decay is obvious in S. thermophilus genome evolution, numerous small genomic islands, which were probably acquired by horizontal gene transfer, comprise important industrial phenotypic traits such as polysaccharide biosynthesis, bacteriocin production, restriction-modification systems or oxygen tolerance [8].
• To understand the molecular basis of this divergence and conservation, we determined the nucleotide sequence of the rat pancreatic polypeptide gene from an islet genomic library and compared it with that of the human gene [9].
• Four related genomic islands were identified in seven tetracycline-resistant C. suis strains [10].

Chemical compound and disease context of Genomic Islands

• Tetracycline resistance in Chlamydia suis mediated by genomic islands inserted into the chlamydial inv-like gene [10].
• DNA polymorphism in the omp25/omp31 family of Brucella spp.: identification of a 1.7-kb inversion in Brucella cetaceae and of a 15.1-kb genomic island, absent from Brucella ovis, related to the synthesis of smooth lipopolysaccharide [11].
• A genomic island present along the bacterial chromosome of the Parachlamydiaceae UWE25, an obligate amoebal endosymbiont, encodes a potentially functional F-like conjugative DNA transfer system [12].

Biological context of Genomic Islands

• Besides one functional tellurite resistance operon, the region contains a genomic island spanning 71.6 kb that harbors the putative pederin biosynthetic genes [13].
• Strains belonging to lineage L1 (definitive phage type DT104) carried the 90-kb Salmonella virulence plasmid together with the complete or partial chromosomally located Salmonella Genomic Island 1 (SGI1) [14].
• The plo gene, encoding the Arcanobacterium pyogenes cholesterol-dependent cytolysin, pyolysin (PLO), was localized to a 2.7-kb genomic islet of reduced %G+C content and alternate codon usage frequency [15].

Anatomical context of Genomic Islands

• Identification and characterization of a novel genomic island integrated at selC in locus of enterocyte effacement-negative, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli [16].

Associations of Genomic Islands with chemical compounds

• Evidence for a symbiosis island involved in horizontal acquisition of pederin biosynthetic capabilities by the bacterial symbiont of Paederus fuscipes beetles [13].
• The unique reconstruction of formation of a metabolic pathway through the activity of IS elements and a genomic island in the chlorobenzene-degrading strain JS705 demonstrated how pathway evolution can occur under natural conditions in a few 'steps' [17].
• All were auxotrophic for thiamin and biotin and three were auxotrophic for nicotinate, whereas derivatives of the strains containing the symbiosis island were prototrophic for all three vitamins [18].
• Here we describe an additional, but LEE-negative genomic island in RW1374 in the vicinity of another phenylalanine tRNA gene, pheU, the sequence of which is identical to pheV [19].
• It appears that bpaAB are located within a putative genomic island that is inserted in close proximity to a methionine tRNA(CAT)-encoding gene [20].

Gene context of Genomic Islands

• The 47-kb long genomic island encodes 37 putative proteins, including the previously described saf fimbrial operon and the sinR transcriptional regulator [21].
• The results demonstrate that the determinants of the members of the S-family of fimbrial adhesins may be located on a common pathogenicity island which, in E. coli strain 536, replaces a 40-kb DNA region which represents an E. coli K-12-specific genomic island [22].
• The 43-kb fragment, here referred to as Salmonella genomic island I (SgiI), was found in the genome of S. enterica Typhymurium between the thdf and a prophage CP-4-like integrase (int2) gene and is flanked by an imperfect 18-bp direct repeat [23].
• BCGI-1 has many conserved features of genomic islands, e.g., a Val-tRNA gene is utilized as the integration site, and a site-specific recombinase gene is located at the 3' end [24].
• We devised software tools to systematically investigate the contents and contexts of bacterial tRNA and tmRNA genes, which are known insertion hotspots for genomic islands (GIs) [25].

References