Palindromic units: a case of highly repetitive DNA sequences in bacteria

Abstract In bacteria, there is growing evidence that highly repeated DNA sequence families are quite widespread. The palindromic unit (PU) family may represent up to 1% of the genome of E. coli and Salmonella typhimurium . The genomic localization of PUs and their consensus sequence appear to be species-specific. At least some PUs display functions at the mRNA level such as mRNA stabilization and, occasionally, mRNA processing or transcription termination. However, some of their properties, including indications that they bind a specific protein, suggest that PUs are involved in the structure of the bacterial nucleoid.

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