Overview
- Editors:
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Alan S. Waldman
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Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Coumbia
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Table of contents (15 protocols)
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Studying Recombination Events in Eukaryotes
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- Rachelle Miller Spell, Sue Jinks-Robertson
Pages 3-12
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- Jason A. Smith, Alan S. Waldman
Pages 13-23
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- Waltraud Schmidt-Puchta, Nadiya Orel, Anzhela Kyryk, Holger Puchta
Pages 25-34
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- Jac A. Nickoloff, Mark A. Brenneman
Pages 35-52
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- Richard McCulloch, Erik Vassella, Peter Burton, Michael Boshart, J. David Barry
Pages 53-86
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- Laura Reinholdt, Terry Ashley, John Schimenti, Naoko Shima
Pages 87-107
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Recombination as a Reporter of Genomic Instability
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Front Matter
Pages 109-109
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- Richard J. Brennan, Robert H. Schiestl
Pages 111-124
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- Ramune Reliene, Alexander J. R. Bishop, Jiri Aubrecht, Robert H. Schiestl
Pages 125-139
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Recombination as a Tool for Producing Targeted Genetic Modification
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Front Matter
Pages 141-141
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- Glenn M. Manthey, Michelle S. Navarro, Adam M. Bailis
Pages 157-172
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- Jean Y. Kuan, Peter M. Glazer
Pages 173-194
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- Katie K. Maguire, Eric B. Kmiec
Pages 209-219
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Biochemistry of Recombination
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Front Matter
Pages 221-221
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- Tamara Goldfarb, Eric Alani
Pages 223-237
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- Angelos Constantinou, Stephen C. West
Pages 239-253
About this book
Genetic recombination, in the broadest sense, can be defined as any process in which DNA sequences interact and undergo a transfer of information, producing new “recombinant” sequences that contain information from each of the original molecules. All organisms have the ability to carry out recombination, and this striking universality speaks to the essential role recombination plays in a variety of biological processes fundamentally important to the maintenance of life. Such processes include DNA repair, regulation of gene expression, disease etiology, meiotic chromosome segregation, and evolution. One important aspect of recombination is that it typically occurs only between sequences that display a high degree of sequence identity. The stringent requirement for homology helps to ensure that, under normal circumstances, a cell is protected from deleterious rearrangements since a swap of genetic information between two nearly identical sequences is not expected to dramatically alter a genome. Recombination between dissimilar sequences, which does happen on occasion, may have such harmful consequences as chromosomal translocations, deletions, or inversions. For many organisms, it is also important that recombination rates are not too high lest the genome become destabilized. Curiously, certain organisms, such as the trypanosome parasite, actually use a high rate of recombination at a particular locus in order to switch antigen expression continually and evade the host immune system effectively.
Editors and Affiliations
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Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Coumbia
Alan S. Waldman