Insertion with long target duplication: a mechanism for gene mobility suggested from comparison of two related bacterial genomes

The complete genome sequences of two closely related organisms - two Helicobacter pylori strains - have recently become available. Comparison of these genomes at single base pair level has suggested the presence of a mechanism for bacterial gene mobility - insertion with long target duplications. This mechanism is formally similar to classical transposon insertion, bur the duplication is much longer, often in the range of 100 bp. Restriction and/or modification enzyme genes are often within or adjacent to the insertion. A similar process may have mediated insertion of the cag(+) pathogenicity island in H. pylori. A similar structure was identified in comparisons between Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae genomes. We hypothesize that this mechanism, as well as two other types of polymorphism linked with restriction-modification genes (insertion accompanied by target deletion and a tripartite structure composed of substitution/inversion/deletion), have resulted from attack by restriction enzymes on the chromosome. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.