An inverted repeat (or IR) is a sequence of nucleotides that is the reversed complement of another sequence further downstream.[1]
For example, 5'---GACTGC....GCAGTC---3'. When no nucleotides intervene between the sequence and its downstream complement, it is called a palindrome. Inverted repeats define the boundaries in transposons. Inverted repeats also indicate regions capable of self-complementary base pairing (regions within a single sequence which can base pair with each other).
[edit] Examples
- original: 5'-GACTGC-3'
- complement: 3'-CTGACG-5' (base pairing)
- reverse complement: 5'-GCAGTC-3'
- lac operator: 5'-AATTGT...ACAATT-3'
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Ussery, David W.; Wassenaar, Trudy; Borini, Stefano (2008-12-22). "Word Frequencies, Repeats, and Repeat-related Structures in Bacterial Genomes". Computing for Comparative Microbial Genomics: Bioinformatics for Microbiologists. Computational Biology. 8 (1 ed.). Springer. p. 133–144. ISBN 978-1-84800-254-8.
[edit] External links
