Mechanism of Bacteriophage Mu DNA Transposition
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
The temperate bacteriophage Mu is a giant transposon under the cloak of a virus (see Bukhari 1976 for previous discussion). It has genes needed for its replication and transposition, genes for head and tail morphogenesis, and an intricate system to control the various functions. In addition, it contains genes for some highly interesting functions such as gin, which is required for the flip-flop of the G segment, and mom, which is involved in DNA modification, a function that is not yet clearly understood. The organization of the 37-kb-long Mu genome is shown in Figure 1.
Mu exhibits great recombinational versatility. It can carry out all the genetic rearrangements characteristic of movable genetic elements. The genetic rearrangements that have been well characterized are shown in Figure 2. These rearrangements cause fusion or dissociation of DNA molecules and rapidly rearrange host DNA when the Mu functions are fully active. It can be...
