Highlights•Clinical class 1 integrons are descended from a single, recent ancestor.•They
have rapidly spread between diverse bacteria, vertebrate hosts and countries.•This spread …

Integrons are genetic elements that, although unable to move themselves, contain gene
cassettes that can be mobilized to other integrons or to secondary sites in the bacterial …

Integrons were first identified because of their central role in assembling and disseminating
antibiotic resistance genes in commensal and pathogenic bacteria. However, these clinically …

As recently indiscriminate abuse of existing antibiotics in both clinical and veterinary
treatment leads to proliferation of antibiotic resistance in microbes and poses a dilemma for …

Background Integrons, especially the class 1 integrons, are major contributors to the
acquisition and dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). However …

Integrons facilitate the capture of potentially adaptive exogenous genetic material by their
host genomes. It is now clear that integrons are not limited to the clinical contexts in which …

In order to contribute to the knowledge of the architecture and epidemiology of class 2
integrons, we performed a class 2 integron molecular survey in which we analyzed 726 …

Integrons are a segment of dsDNA that play a major role in bacterial adaptation and
evolution. These genetic determinants are known by the presence of three necessary …

Integrons are versatile gene acquisition systems commonly found in bacterial genomes.
They are ancient elements that are a hot spot for genomic complexity, generating phenotypic …

Class 1 integrons are central players in the worldwide problem of antibiotic resistance,
because they can capture and express diverse resistance genes. In addition, they are often …