Mu phage
Encyclopedia
Bacteriophage Mu or phage Mu is a temperate bacteriophage
, a type of virus
that infects bacteria
.
to integrate its genome
into the genome of the host cell that it is infecting. It can then use transposition to initiate its viral DNA replication. Once the viral DNA is inserted into the bacteria, the Mu transposase
protein/enzyme in the cell recognises the recombination sites at the ends of the viral DNA (gix-L and gix-R sites) and binds to them, allowing the process of replicating the viral DNA or embedding it into the host genome.
Bacteriophage
A bacteriophage is any one of a number of viruses that infect bacteria. They do this by injecting genetic material, which they carry enclosed in an outer protein capsid...
, a type of virus
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
that infects bacteria
Bacteria
Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
.
Replication
It uses DNA-based transpositionTransposon
Transposable elements are sequences of DNA that can move or transpose themselves to new positions within the genome of a single cell. The mechanism of transposition can be either "copy and paste" or "cut and paste". Transposition can create phenotypically significant mutations and alter the cell's...
to integrate its genome
Genome
In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....
into the genome of the host cell that it is infecting. It can then use transposition to initiate its viral DNA replication. Once the viral DNA is inserted into the bacteria, the Mu transposase
Transposase
Transposase is an enzyme that binds to the ends of a transposon and catalyzes the movement of the transposon to another part of the genome by a cut and paste mechanism or a replicative transposition mechanism....
protein/enzyme in the cell recognises the recombination sites at the ends of the viral DNA (gix-L and gix-R sites) and binds to them, allowing the process of replicating the viral DNA or embedding it into the host genome.