Centre for Immunology and Infection, Hull York Medical School and the Department of Biology, University of York, York, UK.
Curr Opin Microbiol. 2011 Apr;14(2):205-11. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2011.01.002. Epub 2011 Feb 1.
Phase variation yields phenotypic heterogeneity in a clonal population as the result of one of a limited number of known molecular mechanisms. These include slipped strand mispairing, site-specific recombination and epigenetic regulation mediated by DNA methylation. Recently new regulatory variants utilizing these mechanisms have been identified, which is facilitating the identification of additional phase variation events solely from genome sequence analysis. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly clear that in many cases phase variation control is integrated with regulatory networks and with cellular processes of a growing cell. This review focuses specifically on these recent advances in the understanding of the regulation of phase variation.
相位变异通过有限数量的已知分子机制之一，在克隆群体中产生表型异质性。这些机制包括链滑动错配、位点特异性重组和由 DNA 甲基化介导的表观遗传调控。最近，已经确定了利用这些机制的新的调节变体，这有助于仅从基因组序列分析中识别其他相位变异事件。此外，越来越明显的是，在许多情况下，相位变异控制与调节网络以及不断增长的细胞的细胞过程相整合。本综述专门关注这些在理解相位变异调节方面的最新进展。
