ReviewTrends in genetics : TIG2021
Site-Specific Recombination - How Simple DNA Inversions Produce Complex Phenotypic Heterogeneity in Bacterial Populations.
Review in Trends in genetics : TIG, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers.
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed.
- High-throughput editing boosts the construction of next-generation microbial cell factories.Synthetic and systems biotechnology · 2026Review
- A programmed reset mechanism primesScience advances · 2026Article
- TPMM: three-component posterior mixture model enables robust inverton detection in low-depth metagenomes and suggests potential viral invertons.Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Phase variable colony morphotypes ofInfection and immunity · 2026Article
- Article
- Article
- Phase variation inEngineering microbiology · 2026Article
- In situ visualization of Clostridioides difficile phenotypic heterogeneity and single-cell morphology during gut infection.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Phase variable colony morphotypes ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Cepharanthine as a potential Fis inhibitor enhances Enrofloxacin efficacy against Pasteurella multocida.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Genomic diversification and tailocin-mediated competition in animal-associatedISME communications · 2026Article
- Phase variation of Clostridioides difficile colony morphology occurs via modulation of cell division.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Maximizing bacterial survival: integrating sense-and-respond and bet-hedging mechanisms.Trends in microbiology · 2025Review
- Spatial and temporal characterisation of genetic and phenotypic properties of Yersinia pestis in Kazakhstan's natural plague foci.Environmental analysis, health and toxicology · 2025Article
- Gene sequencing andJournal of advanced veterinary and animal research · 2025Article
- How and when organisms edit their own genomes.Nature genetics · 2025Review
- The environmental adaptation of acidophilic archaea: promotion of horizontal gene transfer by genomic islands.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Flagellar switch inverted repeats impact heterogeneity in flagellar gene expression and thus C. difficile RT027/MLST1 virulence.Cell reports · 2025Article
- Dietary carbohydrates alter immune-modulatory functionalities and DNA inversions in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Strain tracking in complex microbiomes using synteny analysis reveals per-species modes of evolution.Nature biotechnology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Many bacterial species generate phenotypically heterogeneous subpopulations as a strategy for ensuring the survival of the population as a whole - an environmental stress that eradicates one subpopulation may leave other phenotypic groups unharmed, allowing the lineage to continue. Phase variation, a process that functions as an ON/OFF switch for gene expression, is one way that bacteria achieve phenotypic heterogeneity. Phase variation occurs stochastically and reversibly, and in the presence of a selective pressure the advantageous phenotype(s) predominates in the population. Phase variation can occur through multiple genetic and epigenetic mechanisms. This review focuses on conservative site-specific recombination that generates reversible DNA inversions as a genetic mechanism mediating phase variation. Recent studies have sparked a renewed interest in phase variation mediated through DNA inversion, revealing a high level of complexity beyond simple ON/OFF switching, including unusual modes of gene regulation, and highlighting an underappreciation of the use of these mechanisms by bacteria.
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