Speaker
Description
Insertion sequence elements (ISEs) are small integrative genetic elements and abundant in bacterial genomes. ISE integration is a frequent cause of both pseudogenisation and promoter capture. Additionally, ISEs are recombination hotspots that stimulate spontaneous gene duplications amplifications and deletions. To study the hypothesised key role of ISEs in bacterial gene expression flexibility and evolvability, we deleted the entire set of 45 ISEs from the E. coli chromosome. These 45 ISEs belong to different families (e.g. 7x IS1, 11x IS5, 7x IS3, 5x IS2, 3x IS186 etc) with varying genetic mobility, target preference and host control. I will present data from genetic analyses, evolution and competition experiments that indicate a central importance of ISEs as agents of genome plasticity and fitness in bacteria.
