title: Functional and evolutionary roles of long repeats in prokaryotes.
abstract: Most recently published complete bacterial genomes have revealed unexpectedly high numbers of long strict repeats. In this article we discuss the various functional and evolutionary roles of these repeats, focusing in particular on their role in terms of genome stability, gene transfer, and antigenic variation.
authors.affiliation: Atelier de bioInformatique, université Paris VI, France. erocha@alsi.jussieu.fr
authors.forename: E P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Rocha
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Danchin
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Viari
mesh_terms: D000940:Antigenic Variation; D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000235:genetics; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats / Q000502:physiology*; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D014169:Transformation, Bacterial
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial