Article
The microbiology of mutability.
FEMS microbiology letters - 1 Dec 2007
Sundin George W, Weigand Michael R
Abstract excerpt
Bacteria possessing elevated spontaneous mutation rates are prevalent in certain environments, which is a paradox because most mutations are deleterious. For example, cells with defects in the methyl-directed mismatch repair (MMR) system, termed mutators or hypermutators, are overrepresented in populations of bacterial pathogens, with the mutator trait hypothesized to be advantageous in the changing host...
Topics
- Animals
- Bacteria
- Bacterial Infections
- Bacterial Proteins
- DNA Mismatch Repair
- DNA Repair Enzymes
- DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase
- Humans
- Mice
- Mutation