title: Ins and outs of mycobacterial plasmids.
abstract: The importance of plasmids for molecular research cannot be underestimated. These double-stranded DNA units that replicate independently of the chromosomal DNA are as valuable to bacterial geneticists as a carpenter's hammer. Fortunately, today the mycobacterial research community has a number of these genetic tools at its disposal, and the development of these tools has greatly accelerated the study of mycobacterial pathogens. However, working with mycobacterial cloning plasmids is still not always as straightforward as working with Escherichia coli plasmids, and therefore a number of precautions and potential pitfalls will be discussed in this chapter.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Tuberculosis Research, College of Pharmacy, Rm 412, University of Illinois at Chicago, 833 S Wood St, Chicago, Illinois 60612-7231, USA. movahed@uic.edu
authors.forename: Farahnaz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Movahedzadeh
authors.forename: Wilbert
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bitter
mesh_terms: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D005822:Genetic Vectors / Q000235:genetics*; D009161:Mycobacterium / Q000235:genetics*; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements