Alternative mechanisms for tn5 transposition.

Bacterial transposons are known to move to new genomic sites using either a replicative or a conservative mechanism. The behavior of transposon Tn5 is anomalous. In vitro studies indicate that it uses a conservative mechanism while in vivo results point to a replicative mechanism. To explain this an...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Asad Ahmed
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2009-08-01
Series:PLoS Genetics
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2723962?pdf=render
Description
Summary:Bacterial transposons are known to move to new genomic sites using either a replicative or a conservative mechanism. The behavior of transposon Tn5 is anomalous. In vitro studies indicate that it uses a conservative mechanism while in vivo results point to a replicative mechanism. To explain this anomaly, a model is presented in which the two mechanisms are not independent--as widely believed--but could represent alternate outcomes of a common transpositional pathway.
ISSN:1553-7390
1553-7404