Isolation of a polA Mutation That Affects Transposition of Insertion Sequences and Transposons

The bacterial transposable elements include the insertion sequences and the transposons. In addition to undergoing transposition, these elements mediate a number of other genetic rearrangements, including deletions, inversions, and inverted duplications (Botstein and Kleckner 1977; Kleckner et al. 1979; Ross et al. 1979; Syvanen 1980). They excise precisely or imprecisely in a reaction that appears to be independent of the transposition reaction (Rubens et al. 1976; Berg 1977).