Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 12, 2026

Site-specific Bacterial Chromosome Engineering: ΦC31 Integrase Mediated Cassette Exchange (IMCE)
Published on: March 16, 2012
The bacteroides NBU1 integrase performs a homology-independent strand exchange to form a holliday junction
Lara Rajeev1, Anca Segall, Jeffrey Gardner
1Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. rajeev@uiuc.edu
Abstract:
The Bacteroides mobilizable transposon NBU1 uses an integrase (IntN1) that is a tyrosine recombinase for its integration and excision from the host chromosome. Previously we showed that IntN1 makes 7-bp staggered cuts within the NBU1 att sites, and certain mismatches within the crossover region of the attN1 site (G(-2)C attN1) or the chromosomal target site (C(-3)G attBT1-1) enhanced the in vivo integration efficiency. Here we describe an in vitro integration system for NBU1. We used nicked substrates and a Holliday junction trapping peptide to show that NBU1 integration proceeds via formation of a Holliday junction intermediate that is formed by exchange of bottom strands. Some mismatches next to the first strand exchange site (in reactions with C(-3)G attBT1-1 or G(-2)C attN1 with their wild-type partner site) not only allowed formation of the Holliday junction intermediate but also increased the rate of recombinant formation. The second strand exchange appears to be homology-dependent. IntN1 is the only tyrosine recombinase known to catalyze a reaction that is more efficient in the presence of mismatches and where the first strand exchange is homology-independent. The possible mechanisms by which the mismatches stimulate recombination are discussed.
More Related Videos
07:55Detection of Homologous Recombination Intermediates via Proximity Ligation and Quantitative PCR in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Published on: September 11, 2022
09:40Quantitation and Analysis of the Formation of HO-Endonuclease Stimulated Chromosomal Translocations by Single-Strand Annealing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Published on: September 23, 2011
Related Concept Videos
Homologous Recombination
Homologous Recombination
Mismatch Repair
The Mutator Protein Family Plays a Key Role in DNA Mismatch Repair
The human genome has more than 3 billion base pairs of DNA per cell. Prior to cell division, that vast amount of genetic...
Mismatch Repair
Conservative Site-specific Recombination and Phase Variation
The recognition sites for Cre recombinase called LoxP...
Mechanism of Conjugation