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General Genetic Recombination of Bacterial Plasmids

  • Chapter
Plasmids in Bacteria

Abstract

Analysis of genetic recombination between 2 chromosomes, which differ from each other by at least 2 genetic markeŕs, is based mainly on the production of recombinants which are phenotypically distinguishable from their progenitors. The use of small DNA molecules such as bacterial plasmids as recombination substrates provides an additional handle for the investigation of recombination. It also allows the description of recombination events in molecular terms. Recombination of 2 plasmids, genetically distinguishable from each other, can be followed as recombination reactions in other systems by monitoring changes in the phenotypic expression of the plasmid genes (1,2,3). But in addition, plasmidic recombination may be investigated by analyzing changes of their molecular structures. Interplasmidic recombination leads to the formation of plasmid oligomers and intraplasmidic recombination between repeated sequences can lead to deletion of the region between the crossing-over sites, and, when the recombination substrate is an oligomer, to monomerization. When mutations affect restriction endonuclease sites, recombination products may be compared to recombination substrates by restriction endonculease analysis (2,4,5). The small size of bacterial plasmids also allows the isolation and characterization of molecular intermediates of the recombination pathway (6,7).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Genetics, Hadassah Medical School, The Hebrew University, P.O. Box 1172, Jerusalem, 91-101, Israel

    Amikam Cohen, Zipora Silberstein, Shimshon Broido & Avraham Laban

Authors
  1. Amikam Cohen
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  2. Zipora Silberstein
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  3. Shimshon Broido
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  4. Avraham Laban
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA

    Donald R. Helinski

  2. Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA

    Stanley N. Cohen

  3. University of Michigan, Ann Harbor, Michigan, USA

    Don B. Clewell

  4. Genex Corporation, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA

    David A. Jackson

  5. Council for Research Planning in Biological Sciences, Inc., Washington, D.C., USA

    Alexander Hollaender

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© 1985 Plenum Press, New York

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Cohen, A., Silberstein, Z., Broido, S., Laban, A. (1985). General Genetic Recombination of Bacterial Plasmids. In: Helinski, D.R., Cohen, S.N., Clewell, D.B., Jackson, D.A., Hollaender, A. (eds) Plasmids in Bacteria. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2447-8_36

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2447-8_36

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-9487-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-2447-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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