DNA rearrangements and phenotypic switching in prokaryotes

Microorganisms have numerous strategies for coping with environmental changes. In many systems, a single cell has the capacity to generate a seemingly infinite array of phenotypic variants in just a few generations of growth. The resulting heterogeneous population is well equipped for sudden environ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMolecular microbiology Vol. 10; no. 3; p. 465
Main Author Dybvig, K
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England 01.11.1993
Subjects
Chromosome Inversion
DNA Nucleotidyltransferases - metabolism
DNA, Bacterial - genetics
DNA, Viral - genetics
Endonucleases - metabolism
Gene Conversion
Gene Expression Regulation
Gene Rearrangement
Integrases
Phenotype
Prokaryotic Cells - cytology
Prokaryotic Cells - metabolism
Recombinases
Recombination, Genetic
Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
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Summary:Microorganisms have numerous strategies for coping with environmental changes. In many systems, a single cell has the capacity to generate a seemingly infinite array of phenotypic variants in just a few generations of growth. The resulting heterogeneous population is well equipped for sudden environmental change; even if only a few cells in the population possess a phenotype needed for survival, these cells have the capacity to regenerate a similarly diverse population. Phenotypic switching in these systems usually results from high-frequency DNA rearrangements which are the subject of this review.
ISSN:0950-382X
DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2958.1993.tb00919.x