View the Current Issue

Article

  • The EMBO Journal (2004) 23, 3408 - 3420
  • doi:10.1038/sj.emboj.7600344

Published online: 29 July 2004

True reversal of Mu integration

T K Au, Shailja Pathaniaa and Rasika M Harshey

  1. Section of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

Correspondence to:

Rasika M Harshey, Department of Microbiology, Section of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1095, USA. Tel.: +1 512 471 6881; Fax: +1 512 471 7088; E-mail: rasika@uts.cc.utexas.edu

aPresent address: Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA

Received 6 May 2004; Accepted 5 July 2004

We describe a high-temperature (75°C) transition in the Mu integration complex that causes efficient and true reversal of the integration reaction. A second reversal pathway, first described as 'foldback' reversal for the HIV integrase, was also observed upon disassembly/reassembly of the Mu complex at normal temperatures. Both true and foldback reversal severed only one or the other of the two integrated Mu ends, and each exhibited distinct metal ion specificities. Our results directly implicate an altered transposase configuration in the Mu strand transfer complex that inhibits reversal, thereby regulating the directionality of transposition.

  • Keywords:

    • directionality of transposition,
    • disintegration,
    • hairpin formation,
    • target conformation,
    • transposase
Top

MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated

REVIEWS

Comparative architecture of transposase and integrase complexes

Nature Structural Biology Review (01 Apr 2001)

See all 5 matches for Reviews

NEWS AND VIEWS

The HIV integrase catalytic core

Nature Structural Biology News and Views (01 Feb 1995)

RESEARCH

Transposase makes critical contacts with, and is stimulated by, single-stranded DNA at the P element termini in vitro

The EMBO Journal Article (01 Apr 1998)

A new set of Mu DNA transposition intermediates: alternate pathways of target capture preceding strand transfer

The EMBO Journal Article (01 Sep 1997)

piggyBac can bypass DNA synthesis during cut and paste transposition

The EMBO Journal Article (09 Apr 2008)

See all 42 matches for Research