Evaluating genome dynamics the constraints on rearrangements within bacterial genomes.docVIP

/2000/1/6/reviews/0006.1 Review Evaluating genome dynamics: the constraints on rearrangements within bacterial genomes Diarmaid Hughes Address: Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Biomedical Center, Uppsala University, S-751 24 Uppsala, Sweden. E-mail: Diarmaid.Hughes@icm.uu.se Published: 8 December 2000 GenomeBiology 2000, 1(6):reviews0006.1–0006.8 The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at /2000/1/6/reviews/0006 ? GenomeB (Print ISSN 1465-6906; Online ISSN 1465-6914) Abstract Inversions and translocations distinguish the genomes of closely related bacterial species, but most of these rearrangements preserve the relationship between the rearranged fragments and the axis of chromosome replication. Within species, such rearrangements are found less frequently, except in the case of clinical isolates of human pathogens, where rearrangements are very frequent. The evolution of biological diversity through genetic change raises questions about how much variation one can expect among closely related genomes. Some answers are emerging from the application of two different technologies to com- parative genomics of bacteria. One, complete genome sequencing, is providing detailed blueprints of one or a few examples of each genome of interest. The second, physical mapping by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), is pro- viding ‘skeleton’ views of large numbers of closely related and it acts by using a duplicate copy of the damaged sequence as a template for repair. The template is normally the homologous sequence on a sister chromosome, but when sequences are present in multiple copies within a genome, RecA can promote recombination between paralogs. Such recombination events can result in rearrangements in the order of genes on the chromosome [1]. Thus, recombination between repeated sequences that are in the same orientation as each othe