ArticleMobile DNA2012
The Mu story: how a maverick phage moved the field forward.
Article in Mobile DNA, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Identification of a novel bacteriophage attachment site into ffs, the 4.5S non-coding RNA component of the signal recognition particle.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Synthetic and Functional Engineering of Bacteriophages: Approaches for Tailored Bactericidal, Diagnostic, and Delivery Platforms.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Prophages in marineISME communications · 2025Article
- Natural and Engineered Guide RNA-Directed Transposition with CRISPR-Associated Tn7-Like Transposons.Annual review of biochemistry · 2024Review
- Elucidating the Architectural dynamics of MuB filaments in bacteriophage Mu DNA transposition.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Unexplored diversity and ecological functions of transposable phages.The ISME journal · 2023Article
- Prophage-Derived Regions inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Landscape of mobile genetic elements and their antibiotic resistance cargo in prokaryotic genomes.Nucleic acids research · 2022Article
- Structure and function of retroviral integrase.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2022Review
- Bacteriophage Technology and Modern Medicine.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Characterization and Genome Analysis of a Novel Mu-like Phage VW-6B Isolated from the Napahai Plateau Wetland of China.Current microbiology · 2021Article
- Rethinking Phage Ecology by Rooting it Within an Established Plant Framework.PHAGE (New Rochelle, N.Y.) · 2020Article
- Mu transpososome activity-profiling yields hyperactive MuA variants for highly efficient genetic and genome engineering.Nucleic acids research · 2018Article
- Article
- Mu-driven transposition of recombinant mini-Mu unit DNA in the Corynebacterium glutamicum chromosome.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2018Article
- A widespread family of polymorphic toxins encoded by temperate phages.BMC biology · 2017Article
- Target DNA bending by the Mu transpososome promotes careful transposition and prevents its reversal.eLife · 2017Article
- Retroviral DNA Integration.Chemical reviews · 2016Review
- DNA Transposition at Work.Chemical reviews · 2016Review
- Software-based analysis of bacteriophage genomes, physical ends, and packaging strategies.BMC genomics · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
This article traces the pioneering contributions of phage Mu to our current knowledge of how movable elements move/transpose. Mu provided the first molecular evidence of insertion elements in E. coli, postulated by McClintock to control gene activity in maize in the pre-DNA era. An early Mu-based model successfully explained all the DNA rearrangements associated with transposition, providing a blueprint for navigating the deluge of accumulating reports on transposable element activity. Amplification of the Mu genome via transposition meant that its transposition frequencies were orders of magnitude greater than any rival, so it was only natural that the first in vitro system for transposition was established for Mu. These experiments unraveled the chemistry of the phosphoryl transfer reaction of transposition, and shed light on the nucleoprotein complexes within which they occur. They hastened a similar analysis of other transposons and ushered in the structural era where many transpososomes were crystallized. While it was a lucky break that the mechanism of HIV DNA integration turned out to be similar to that of Mu, it is no accident that current drugs for HIV integrase inhibitors owe their discovery to trailblazing experiments done with Mu. Shining the light on how movable elements restructure genomes, Mu has also given of itself generously to understanding the genome.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.