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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

purification, putative single-stranded DNA, binding protein, Arabidopsis thaliana

College

Life Sciences

Department

Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Abstract

DNA recombination is the exchange of segments between homologous molecules of DNA, resulting in expanded genetic diversity. Recombination provides essential genetic variation, but can also cause harmful rearrangements, resulting in genetic disorders in plants, mammals and yeast. The mechanisms and results of these events are still the subject of much research. A variety of evidence supports DNA recombination in plants, but the mechanisms are poorly understood. Researchers have proposed a bacterial RecA-mediated mechanism for DNA recombination in mitochondria based on evidence of an evolutionary relationship between bacteria and mitochondria. However, until recently, plant mitochondria had not been shown to contain any of the proteins needed for this mechanism, including RecA.

Included in

Microbiology Commons

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