Tansirichaiya Supathep, Rahman Md Ajijur, Antepowicz Agata, Mullany Peter, Roberts Adam P
Department of Microbial Diseases, UCL Eastman Dental Institute, University College London, 256 Gray's Inn Road, London, WC1X 8LD, United Kingdom.
Department of Pharmacy, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi-6205, Bangladesh.
PLoS One. 2016 Jun 15;11(6):e0157605. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157605. eCollection 2016.
Integrons are genetic elements capable of capturing and expressing open reading frames (ORFs) embedded within gene cassettes. They are involved in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in clinically important pathogens. Although the ARGs are common in the oral cavity the association of integrons and antibiotic resistance has not been reported there. In this work, a PCR-based approach was used to investigate the presence of integrons and associated gene cassettes in human oral metagenomic DNA obtained from both the UK and Bangladesh. We identified a diverse array of gene cassettes containing ORFs predicted to confer antimicrobial resistance and other adaptive traits. The predicted proteins include a putative streptogramin A O-acetyltransferase, a bleomycin binding protein, cof-like hydrolase, competence and motility related proteins. This is the first study detecting integron gene cassettes directly from oral metagenomic DNA samples. The predicted proteins are likely to carry out a multitude of functions; however, the function of the majority is yet unknown.
整合子是能够捕获和表达嵌入基因盒中的开放阅读框（ORF）的遗传元件。它们参与了临床重要病原体中抗生素抗性基因（ARG）的传播。尽管ARG在口腔中很常见，但整合子与抗生素抗性之间的关联在那里尚未见报道。在这项工作中，采用基于PCR的方法来研究从英国和孟加拉国获得的人类口腔宏基因组DNA中整合子和相关基因盒的存在情况。我们鉴定出了各种各样的基因盒，其中包含预测具有抗菌抗性和其他适应性特征的ORF。预测的蛋白质包括一种假定的链阳霉素A O - 乙酰转移酶、一种博来霉素结合蛋白、cof样水解酶、与感受态和运动性相关的蛋白质。这是首次直接从口腔宏基因组DNA样本中检测整合子基因盒的研究。预测的蛋白质可能执行多种功能；然而，大多数蛋白质的功能尚不清楚。
