SPAGNOLETTI M.

Cholera is still a major public health concern in many African countries. In Angola, after a decade of absence, cholera reemerged in 1987, spreading throughout the country until 1996, with outbreaks recurring in a seasonal pattern. In 2006 Angola was hit by one of the most severe outbreaks of the last decade, with ca. 240,000 cases reported. We...

SXT-R391 Integrative conjugative elements (ICEs) are self-transmissible mobile genetic elements able to confer multidrug resistance and other adaptive features to bacterial hosts, including Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera. ICEs are arranged in a mosaic genetic structure composed of a conserved backbone interspersed with variable...

Genomic islands (GIs) and integrative conjugative elements (ICEs) are major players in bacterial evolution since they encode genes involved in adaptive functions of medical or environmental importance. Here we performed the genomic analysis of ICEVchBan8, an unusual ICE found in the genome of a clinical non-toxigenic Vibrio cholerae O37...