Integron Integrases Conservative Sites

 Integron integrases (IntIs) are site-specific recombinases that form a subclass within the tyrosine recombinase family owing to the presence of a unique insertion that is required for activity, among other that from the data collected I conclude that they are important due to their conservation or alikeness in most of the integron integrases I have.

During the past weeks I have worked analyzing multiple sequences of a variety of integrons integrase.  Some of the sequences were obtained from the paper “Novel and diverse integron integrase genes and integron-like gene cassettes are prevalent in deep-sea hydrothermal vents” –Enviromental Microbiology (2007), and others from sequences Dr. Carlos Rodriguez got when he extracted DNA from deep-sea samples that he collected form the Artic.  To compare if these integrons integrase were functional I used the sequence of  Vibrio cholerae integrase   (VchIntI4) as a rule, being this integrase one of the class 4, the longest and most antique.  As an integrase class 1 I used one from E. coli and as a class 2 one from Shiguella.

The main focus is for me to find the integrases that are functional by comparing their sequences in the alignment.  The sequences come from extremely cold or from extremely hot environments and yet I could find conservative sites.  Then I could do PCR of those…

~ by Agnes Acevedo-Canabal on March 25, 2008.