Target Search by an Imported Conjugative DNA Element for a Unique Integration Site Along a Bacterial Chromosome During Horizontal Gene Transfer

Overview

Journal Nucleic Acids Res

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialty Biochemistry

Date 2023 Feb 10

PMID 36762480

Authors

Rinat Arbel-Goren

Saria A McKeithen-Mead

Dominik Voglmaier

Idana Afremov

Gianluca Teza

Alan D Grossman

Joel Stavans

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) are mobile genetic elements that can transfer by conjugation to recipient cells. Some ICEs integrate into a unique site in the genome of their hosts. We studied quantitatively the process by which an ICE searches for its unique integration site in the Bacillus subtilis chromosome. We followed the motion of both ICEBs1 and the chromosomal integration site in real time within individual cells. ICEBs1 exhibited a wide spectrum of dynamical behaviors, ranging from rapid sub-diffusive displacements crisscrossing the cell, to kinetically trapped states. The chromosomal integration site moved sub-diffusively and exhibited pronounced dynamical asymmetry between longitudinal and transversal motions, highlighting the role of chromosomal structure and the heterogeneity of the bacterial interior in the search. The successful search for and subsequent recombination into the integration site is a key step in the acquisition of integrating mobile genetic elements. Our findings provide new insights into intracellular transport processes involving large DNA molecules.

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