Systematic Analysis of REBASE Identifies Numerous Type I Restriction-Modification Systems with Duplicated, Distinct hsdS Specificity Genes That Can Switch System Specificity by Recombination.

ABSTRACT: N ⁶-Adenine DNA methyltransferases associated with some Type I and Type III restriction-modification (R-M) systems are able to undergo phase variation, randomly switching expression ON or OFF by varying the length of locus-encoded simple sequence repeats (SSRs). This variation of methyltransferase expression results in genome-wide methylation differences and global changes in gene expression. These epigenetic regulatory systems are called phasevarions, phase-variable regulons, and are widespread in bacteria. A distinct switching system has also been described in Type I R-M systems, based on recombination-driven changes in hsdS genes, which dictate the DNA target site. In order to determine the prevalence of recombination-driven phasevarions, we generated a program

SUBMITTER: Atack JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7394358 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature