Detection of Dispersed Repeats in the Genomes of Bacteria from Different Phyla

抄録

In this study, we searched for dispersed repeats in the genomes of bacteria from 42 phyla using the iterative procedure method. The results revealed that each genome contained a family of repeats with lengths from 440 to 580 bases and copy numbers from 1.0 × 10³ to 1.4 × 10⁴, depending on the species. The detected repeats occupied from 17 to 72% of the bacterial genome, and more than 90% of them were superimposed as motifs on the coding sequences. The repeats contained conserved islands interspersed with weakly similar regions. Consensus sequences calculated for all the found repeats appeared to significantly differ among the bacteria. We hypothesize that the detected repeat families may be involved in the formation of the bacterial nucleoid.