Characterization of Non-selected Intermolecular Gene Conversion in the Polyploid Haloarchaeon .

Gene conversion is defined as the non-reciprocal transfer of genetic information from one site to a homologous, but not identical site of the genome. In prokaryotes, gene conversion can increase the variance of sequences, like in antigenic variation, but can also lead to a homogenization of sequences, like in the concerted evolution of multigene families. In contrast to these intramolecular mechanisms, the intermolecular gene conversion in polyploid prokaryotes, which leads to the equalization of the multiple genome copies, has hardly been studied.

Characterization of the transcriptome of Haloferax volcanii, grown under four different conditions, with mixed RNA-Seq.

Haloferax volcanii is a well-established model species for haloarchaea. Small scale RNomics and bioinformatics predictions were used to identify small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs), and deletion mutants revealed that sRNAs have important regulatory functions. A recent dRNA-Seq study was used to characterize the primary transcriptome.

Genome-wide identification of transcriptional start sites in the haloarchaeon Haloferax volcanii based on differential RNA-Seq (dRNA-Seq).

Background: Differential RNA-Seq (dRNA-Seq) is a recently developed method of performing primary transcriptome analyses that allows for the genome-wide mapping of transcriptional start sites (TSSs) and the identification of novel transcripts. Although the transcriptomes of diverse bacterial species have been characterized by dRNA-Seq, the transcriptome analysis of archaeal species is still rather limited. Therefore, we used dRNA-Seq to characterize the primary transcriptome of the model archaeon Haloferax volcanii.

Optimized generation of vectors for the construction of Haloferax volcanii deletion mutants.

A method for the construction of in frame deletions in chromosomal genes of the archaeon Haloferax volcanii has been described recently (Allers et al. (2004), Appl. Environ.

Genome-wide analysis of growth phase-dependent translational and transcriptional regulation in halophilic archaea.

Background: Differential expression of genes can be regulated on many different levels. Most global studies of gene regulation concentrate on transcript level regulation, and very few global analyses of differential translational efficiencies exist. The studies have revealed that in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Arabidopsis thaliana, and human cell lines translational regulation plays a significant role.