title: Promoter reuse in prokaryotes.
abstract: Anecdotal evidence shows promoters being reused separate from their downstream gene, thus providing a mechanism for the efficient and rapid rewiring of a gene's transcriptional regulation. We have identified over 4000 groups of highly similar promoters using a conservative sequence similarity search in all fully sequenced prokaryotic genomes. About 6% of those groups are shared between bacteria from different taxonomic depth, including different genera, families, orders, classes and even phyla. Database searches against known mobile elements and RNA motifs have indicated that regulatory motifs such as riboswitches could be moved around on putative mobile promoters.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Bioinformatics; Wageningen University; Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Harm
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nijveen
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matus-Garcia
authors.forename: Mark Willem John
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: van Passel
keywords: horizontal gene transfer; mobile elements; prokaryotes; promoters; rewiring