Nucleotide sequence of conjugative prophage Φ1207.3 (formerly Tn1207.3) carrying the mef(A)/msr(D) genes for eﬄux resistance to macrolides in Streptococcus pyogenes

Francesco Iannelli; Maria Santagati; Francesco Santoro; Marco R Oggioni; Stefania Stefani; Gianni Pozzi

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2014.00687

Nucleotide sequence of conjugative prophage Φ1207.3 (formerly Tn1207.3) carrying the mef(A)/msr(D) genes for eﬄux resistance to macrolides in Streptococcus pyogenes

Front Microbiol. 2014 Dec 9:5:687. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2014.00687. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Francesco Iannelli¹, Maria Santagati², Francesco Santoro¹, Marco R Oggioni¹, Stefania Stefani², Gianni Pozzi¹

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Department of Medical Biotechnologies, University of Siena Siena, Italy.
² Section of Microbiology, Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania Catania, Italy.

Abstract

Genetic element Φ1207.3 (formerly Tn1207.3) is a prophage of Streptococcus pyogenes which carries the macrolide eﬄux resistance genes mef(A)/msr(D) and is capable of conjugal transfer among streptococci. Complete nucleotide sequence showed that Φ1207.3 is 52,491 bp in length and contained 58 open reading frames (ORFs). A manual homology-based annotation with functional prediction of the hypothetical gene product was possible only for 34 out of 58 ORFs. Φ1207.3 codes for two different C-methylation systems, several phage structural genes, a lysis cassette (composed by a holin and a peptidoglycan hydrolase), and three site-specific resolvases of the serine recombinase family.

Keywords: ICE; S. pyogenes; Tn1207.1; Tn1207.3; macrolide resistance; prophage; Φ1207.3.