RAC: Repository of Antibiotic resistance Cassettes

RAC otherwise known as Repository of Antibiotic resistance Cassettes is a database that uses the automatic Attacca annotation system in order to comprehensively annotate gene-cassettes and transposable elements in a stream-lined manner and to discover novel gene cassettes.[1] Antibiotic resistance is often due to horizontal gene transfer, which allows resistance to arise through cell-to-cell interaction.[2] This poses a major challenge in the field of antibiotic resistance. Hence, the creation of RAC which would provide researchers a comprehensive and unique tool for the endeavor of documenting resistance due to gene-cassettes and transposable elements. Attacca helps discover novel gene cassettes when any three of the following occurs as mentioned in Tsafnat et al, 2011:

• the Attacca discovery heuristics (19) identify a gap in a cassette array that could correspond to a novel cassette;[1]
• a cassette encoding a potentially novel β-lactamase variant is detected;[1] or
• the type of sequence submitted (e.g. isolated cassette) suggests that a gene cassette should be present but a gene cassette is not found by Attacca.[1]

If any of these cases occur, the gene-cassette would be sent to review at the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, University of Sydney for further examination.[1]