The Repertoire of ICE in Prokaryotes Underscores the Unity, Diversity, and Ubiquity of Conjugation (original) (raw)
Figure 1
Scheme of some essential interactions in the process of ICEs movement.
The integration/excision reaction (1) occurs by recombination across two recombination sites (yellow squares) located at the termini of the inserted element. As a result, a circular (most commonly non-replicating) DNA molecule is produced. Conjugation (2) is carried out by mobility systems. The relaxase (red circle) cleaves a specific site within oriT, and this step starts conjugation. The DNA strand that contains the relaxase protein covalently bound to its 5′-end is displaced by an ongoing conjugative DNA replication process (dotted lines). The relaxase interacts with the T4CP (green oval) and then with other components of the T4SS (blue rectangle). As a result, the relaxase-DNA complex is transported to the recipient cell [13]. Since ICEs are supposed not to replicate autonomously, the process terminates necessarily by integration of the transferred DNA circle in the recipient chromosome.