MECHANISMS OF ILLEGITIMATE RECOMBINATION

Illegitimate recombination, which is one of the major causes of genome rearrangements, can occur in a number of ways. These might involve en zymes which cut and join DNA or enzymes which replicate DNA, as illust rated by two examples: (i) formation of deletions at the replication o rigin (or i) of an Escherichia coli bacteriophage, M13; and (ii) excis ion of E. coli transposon TnlO. It is proposed that a common theme to various ways by which illegitimate recombination can occur might be th e capacity to create ends in the DNA molecule and to make the ends mee t.