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integrative conjugative element

traitmech:000410 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A genomic island trait in which an organism possesses an integrative and conjugative element, a self-transmissible mobile genetic element that integrates into host DNA, excises under induced expression, and encodes type IV secretion machinery for conjugative transfer to recipient cells.

Trait evidence (2)

  • DOI:10.1146/annurev-genet-112414-055018
    There are two defining features of ICEs: (a) They are found integrated in a host genome; and (b) they encode a functional conjugation system, a type IV secretion system

    Johnson and Grossman define integrative and conjugative elements as host-integrated mobile genetic elements that encode a functional type IV secretion conjugation system.

  • DOI:10.1093/nar/gkad644
    The term ‘genomic island’ encompasses diverse types of mobile genetic elements that exhibit various structures and gene contents, including prophages, transposons, integrated plasmids, integrative and mobilizable elements (IMEs), and integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs)

    Bioteau et al. place integrative and conjugative elements among the mobile-genetic-element subclasses encompassed by genomic islands.

ICEs excise, transfer by conjugation, and reintegrate

Conservative ICE life-cycle sketch linking an integrated ICE locus to circularization, oriT processing, T4SS-mediated conjugative transfer, recipient integration, and the genomic-island possession trait.

NONMECHANISTIC · This genomics graph summarizes the shared ICE life cycle at the mobile-element level. It does not assert exact protein-family groundings for heterogeneous ICE integrases, relaxases, type IV coupling proteins, or T4SS subunits.

ICEs excise, transfer by conjugation, and reintegrate Interactive directed graph showing evidence-backed causal relationships for integrative conjugative element.

Edge evidence

  • integrated ICE locus enables ICE excision and circularization RO:0002327

    Upon induction, an integrated ICE excises from the chromosome and forms a circular dsDNA intermediate.

    • DOI:10.1146/annurev-genet-112414-055018 When ICE gene expression is induced, by specific cellular conditions or perhaps stochastically, the ICE excises from the chromosome and forms a circular dsDNA molecule Johnson and Grossman summarize induction-linked ICE excision and circular double-stranded DNA intermediate formation.
  • ICE excision and circularization enables oriT processing RO:0002327

    The circular ICE is processed at oriT to generate the linear ssDNA-protein transfer complex.

    • DOI:10.1146/annurev-genet-112414-055018 Other host and ICE-encoded proteins recognize the origin of transfer (oriT) and process the ICE DNA to generate a linear ssDNA-protein complex Johnson and Grossman describe oriT recognition and ICE DNA processing that produces the linear transfer-DNA complex.
  • oriT processing enables conjugation RO:0002327

    The mating machinery transports the processed transfer DNA into a recipient cell.

    • DOI:10.1146/annurev-genet-112414-055018 The mating machinery pumps the T-DNA into the recipient The Johnson and Grossman life-cycle summary places mating-machinery transport after transfer-DNA generation.
  • conjugation enables ICE integration RO:0002327

    Transferred ICE DNA recircularizes and becomes a double-stranded integration substrate in the recipient.

    • DOI:10.1146/annurev-genet-112414-055018 In both the donor and recipient, the circular dsDNA ICE integrates into the host chromosome. Johnson and Grossman's ICE life-cycle figure caption states that the circular double-stranded ICE reintegrates in donor and recipient cells.
  • ICE integration confers integrative conjugative element METPO:2007700

    Recipient-chromosome integration completes possession of an integrated conjugative element.

    • DOI:10.1146/annurev-genet-112414-055018 There are two defining features of ICEs: (a) They are found integrated in a host genome; and (b) they encode a functional conjugation system, a type IV secretion system Johnson and Grossman define integrative and conjugative elements as host-integrated mobile genetic elements that encode a functional type IV secretion conjugation system.
  • integrative conjugative element is a genomic island rdfs:subClassOf

    Integrative-conjugative-element possession is a genomic-island possession trait.

    • DOI:10.1093/nar/gkad644 The term ‘genomic island’ encompasses diverse types of mobile genetic elements that exhibit various structures and gene contents, including prophages, transposons, integrated plasmids, integrative and mobilizable elements (IMEs), and integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) Bioteau et al. place integrative and conjugative elements among the mobile-genetic-element subclasses encompassed by genomic islands.

Provenance

Identifier source
TraitMech local identifier
Definition source
DOI:10.1146/annurev-genet-112414-055018

Parent traits (1)

Synonyms (1)

  • ICE RELATED_SYNONYM · DOI:10.1146/annurev-genet-112414-055018

kg-microbe context

No kg-microbe node embedding matched this record in the 2026-04-25 deepwalk.

Canonical examples (2)

Organisms cited as exemplars of this trait. Taxon ids are NCBITaxon and link out to the NCBI record.

Discussions and Knowledge Gaps (1)

Open questions attached to this trait. Seeded by just knowledge-gap-scan and curated; see the corpus-wide index.

Resolve bacterial ICE subfamilies, Actinomycete ICE boundaries, integrase/relaxase/T4SS signatures, and cargo-phenotype scope before minting narrower ICE mechanism children.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN ice-family-resolution-gap · raised by codex · 2026-09-27

Attached to causal_graphs#ice_excision_conjugation_integration

Johnson and Grossman define ICEs by host-genome integration and a functional type IV secretion conjugation system, while Bioteau et al. classify ICEs as self-transmissible genomic islands. This first record captures the genome-level possession trait without claiming exact molecular groundings for heterogeneous integrases, relaxases, T4SS variants, Actinomycete ICE machinery, or adaptive cargo phenotypes.

Curation history

  1. · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex

    Minted integrative conjugative element as a DOI-backed GENOMICS TraitRecord under genomic island with ICEBs1 and Tn916 canonical examples after an ignored-and-hidden duplicate review found no exact live TraitMech, METPO, history, or prior proposal record; the replacement placeholder is reserved in proposals/metpo_traitmech_v287.