GENETIC INSTABILITY AND ITS POSSIBLE EVOLUTIONARY IMPLICATIONS ON THECHROMOSOMAL STRUCTURE OF STREPTOMYCES

Recent progress in the understanding of the chromosomal rearrangements in Streptomyces has allowed us to envisage the possible involvement o f genetic instability in the evolution of the chromosomal structure. T he characterization of recombinational events in the terminal parts of the S ambofaciens chromosome, as well as the observation by other gro ups that linear plasmids and chromosomes are able to interact. would p rovide an explanation For the very high levels of polymorphism seen in the terminal inverted repeats of different strains of Streptomyces.