Quality Control in Mu DNA Transposition

Quality Control in Mu DNA Transposition

Transposons are segments of DNA encoding protein the resulting Strand Transfer Complex (STC, also called factors that move the DNA segment to new locations in Type 2 complex) , the 59 ends of Mu DNA are still joined the genome. They are ubiquitous among organisms and to old flanking DNA sequence, while the 39 ends of Mu play an important role in genome evolution, including DNA are joined to new...

Mu in vitro DNA Transposition Applications in Protein Engineering

Visualizing Mu transposition: assembling the puzzle pieces.

Mobile genetic elements, once a curiosity of maize genetics, are now known to be remarkably prevalent in the genomes of organisms ranging from pathogenic bacteria to humans. The varied consequences of these elements include the alteration of gene expression and the spread of drug resistance genes among bacteria. Additionally, many viruses and bacteriophages that covalently integrate their own g...

Studies on a "jumping gene machine": higher-order nucleoprotein complexes in Mu DNA transposition.

Studies in my lab have focused on DNA transposition in the bacterial virus, Mu. In vitro studies have shown that Mu DNA transposition is a three-step process involving DNA breakage, strand transfer and DNA replication. In the first step, a nick is introduced at each end of the transposon. The liberated 3'-OH groups subsequently attack a target DNA molecule resulting in strand transfer. The tran...

Switch in the transposition products of Mu DNA mediated by proteins: Cointegrates versus simple insertions.

Bacteriophage Mu is a self-contained mobile unit encoding functions that mediate its movement. There appear to be two alternate pathways for Mu DNA transposition that differ with respect to the end products they generate. During the lytic cycle of phage Mu growth the end products of transposition are predominantly cointegrates in an experimental system in which the induced Mu prophage is locate...