My watch list
my.chemeurope.com  
Login  

Inverted repeat



An inverted repeat (or IR) is a sequence of nucleotides that is the reversed complement of another sequence further downstream. For example, 5'---GACTGC....GCAGTC---3'. When no nucleotides intervene between the sequence and its downstream complement, it is called a palindrome. Inverted repeats define the boundaries in transposons. Inverted repeats also indicate regions capable of self-complementary base pairing (regions within a single sequence which can base pair with each other). Also compare with direct repeats.

Examples

  • original: GACTGC
  • complement: CTGACG (base pairing)
  • reverse complement: GCAGTC (read backwards)
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Inverted_repeat". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
Your browser is not current. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 does not support some functions on Chemie.DE