Evolution of prokaryotic gene order: genome rearrangements in closely related species

Conservation of gene order in prokaryotes has become important in predictin g protein function because, over the evolutionary timescale, genomes are sh uffled so that local gene-order conservation reflects the functional constr aints within the protein. Here, we compare closely related genomes to ident ify the rate with which gene order is disrupted and to infer the genes invo lved in the genome rearrangement.