Role of Bacterial Integrons in Development of MultidrugResistant Phenotypes

Antibiotics have revolutionized medicine in the 20th century and have been extensively used in the treatment and control of many types of infections in a wide variety of plant and animal species. However, the widespread use of antibiotics has led to a massive explosion of antibiotic-resistant phenotypes in human and animal pathogens. Multidrug resistance has been on the rise with some strains becoming resistant to most of the available chemotherapeutic agents. Integrons are ancient, gene acquisition systems commonly found in several bacterial species that allow capture and expression of exogenous genes. Integrons have been recognized as the primary source of resistance genes, and are known to aid in the spread of antimicrobial resistance genes and the rapid evolution of resistance within microbial populations.