Site-specific recombination involves very short specific sequences that are recognized by proteins. Long DNA sequences such as viral genomes, drug-resistance elements, and regulatory sequences such as the mating type locus in yeast can be inserted, removed, or inverted, having profound regulatory effects. More than any other mechanism, site-specific recombination is responsible for reshaping genomes. For example, the genomes of many higher organisms, including plants and humans, show evidence that transposable elements have been constantly inserted throughout the genome and even into one another from time to time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One example of site-specific recombination is the\u00a0integration\u00a0of DNA from bacteriophage \u03bb into the chromosome of\u00a0E. coli<\/em>. In this reaction, bacteriophage \u03bb DNA, which is a linear molecule in the normal phage, first forms a circle and then is\u00a0cleaved\u00a0by the enzyme \u03bb-integrase at a specific site called the phage attachment site. A similar site on the bacterial chromosome is cut by integrase to give ends with the identical extension. Because of the complementarity between these two ends, they can be rejoined so that the original circular \u03bb chromosome is inserted into the chromosome of the\u00a0E. coli<\/em>\u00a0bacterium. Once\u00a0integrated, the phage can be held in an inactive state until signals are generated that reverse the process, allowing the phage genome to escape and resume its normal life cycle of growth and spread into other bacteria. This site-specific recombination process requires only \u03bb-integrase and one host DNA binding protein called the\u00a0integration host factor. A third protein, called\u00a0excisionase, recognizes the hybrid sites formed on integration and, in conjunction with integrase, catalyzes an excision process whereby the \u03bb chromosome is removed from the bacterial chromosome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A similar but more widespread version of DNA integration and excision is exhibited by the\u00a0transposons, the so-called jumping genes. These elements range in size from fewer than 1,000 to as many as 40,000 base pairs. Transposons are able to move from one location in a genome to another, as first discovered in corn (maize) during the 1940s and \u201950s by\u00a0Barbara McClintock, whose work won her a\u00a0Nobel Prize\u00a0in 1983. Most, if not all, transposons encode an enzyme called\u00a0transposase that acts much like \u03bb-integrase by\u00a0cleaving\u00a0the ends of the transposon as well as its target site. Transposons differ from bacteriophage \u03bb in that they do not have a separate existence outside of the chromosome but rather are always maintained in an integrated site. Two types of transposition can occur\u2014one in which the element simply moves from one site in the chromosome to another and a second in which the transposon is replicated prior to moving. This second type of transposition leaves behind the original copy of the transposon and generates a second copy that is inserted elsewhere in the genome. Known as\u00a0replicative transposition, this process is the mechanism responsible for the\u00a0vast\u00a0spread of transposable elements in many higher organisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The simplest kinds of transposons merely contain a copy of the transposase with no additional genes. They behave as parasitic elements and usually have no known associated function that is advantageous to the host. More often, transposable elements have additional genes associated with them\u2014for example,\u00a0antibiotic resistance\u00a0factors. Antibiotic resistance typically occurs when an infecting bacterium acquires a\u00a0plasmid\u00a0that carries a\u00a0gene\u00a0encoding resistance to one or more antibiotics. Typically, these resistance genes are carried on transposable elements that have moved into plasmids and are easily transferred from one organism to another. Once a bacterium picks up such a gene, it enjoys a great selective advantage because it can grow in the presence of the antibiotic.\u00a0Indiscriminate\u00a0use of antibiotics actually promotes the buildup of these drug-resistant plasmids and strains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Site-specific recombination involves very short specific sequences that are recognized by proteins. Long DNA sequences such as viral genomes, drug-resistance elements, and regulatory sequences such as the mating type locus in yeast can be inserted, removed, or inverted, having profound regulatory effects. More than any other mechanism, site-specific recombination is responsible for reshaping genomes. For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nucleic-acids"],"Cooking_time":"","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cake.appscodestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cake.appscodestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cake.appscodestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cake.appscodestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cake.appscodestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cake.appscodestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1913,"href":"https:\/\/cake.appscodestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912\/revisions\/1913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cake.appscodestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cake.appscodestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cake.appscodestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}