Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Mechanisms of homologous recombination in bacteria / Marie-Agnes Petit -- Introduction to site-specific recombination / Makkuni Jayaram and Ian Grainge -- Site-specific recombination by the serine recombinases / Sally J. Rowland and W. Marshall Stark -- Mobile introns and retroelements in bacteria / Steve Zimmerly -- The F-plasmid, a paradigm for bacterial conjugation / Michael J. Gubbins, William R. Will, and Laura S. Frost -- Molecular aspects of movement of conjugative transposons / Adam P. Roberts and Peter Mullany -- Competence for genetic transformation / Irena Draskovic and David Dubnau -- Phase variation and antigenic variation / Richard Villemur and Eric Deziel -- Pathogenicity island / Bianca Hochhut and Jorg Hacker -- Biological consequences for bacteria of homologous recombination / Diarmaid Hughes and Tobias Norstrom -- Horizontal gene transfer and bacterial genomic legacies / James R. Brown.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the mechanisms and biological consequences of genome rearrangements in bacteria. Genome rearrangements are a result of the actions of discrete genetic elements such as conjugative transposons, plasmids, phage, and non-conjugative transposons. Bacteria also contain systems to mediate genetic rearrangements such as the general recombination pathway and specialized endogenous recombination mechanisms. The biological effects of these rearrangements are far-reaching and impact on bacterial virulence, antibiotic resistance and the ability of bacteria to avoid the attentions of the host immune system (e.g. antigenic variation). These rearrangements also provide the raw material on which natural selection can act. Each chapter examines the mechanisms involved in genome rearrangements and the direct biological consequences of these events. This book is written by leading research workers and is an invaluable resource for graduate students and researchers in this field.