Integron gene cassettes and degradation of compounds associated with industrial waste: the case of the Sydney tar ponds.

ABSTRACT: Integrons are genetic platforms that accelerate lateral gene transfer (LGT) among bacteria. They were first detected on plasmids bearing single and multiple drug resistance determinants in human pathogens, and it is abundantly clear that integrons have played a major role in the evolution of this public health menace. Similar genetic elements can be found in nonpathogenic environmental bacteria and in metagenomic environmental DNA samples, and it is reasonable to suppose that integrons have facilitated microbial adaptation through LGT in niches outside infectious disease wards. Here we show that a heavily impacted estuary, exposed for almost a century to products of coal and steel industries, has developed a rich and unique cassette metagenome, containing genes likely to aid in the catabol

SUBMITTER: Koenig JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2669170 | biostudies-literature | 2009

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature