Insertion Sequences show diverse recent activities in Cyanobacteria and Archaea.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) play an essential role in genome rearrangement and evolution, and are widely used as an important genetic tool.

Results

In this article, we present genetic maps of recently active Insertion Sequence (IS) elements, the simplest form of MGEs, for all sequenced cyanobacteria and archaea, predicted based on the previously identified ~1,500 IS elements. Our predicted IS maps are consistent with the NCBI annotations of the IS elements. By linking the predicted IS elements to various characteristics of the organisms under study and the organism's living conditions, we found that (a) the activities of IS elements heavily depend on the environments where the host organisms live; (b) the number of recently active IS elements in a genome tends

SUBMITTER: Zhou F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2246112 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature