Analyses of inverted repeats localization in bacterial genomes

Inverted repeats (IR) are common part of DNA of all living prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Inverted repeats plays an important role in the regulation of basics cells processes. They are responsible for formation of cruciform structures. Inverted repeats also cause genomic instability and can be a source of numerous mutations. Cruciform structures can be recognized by DNA-binding proteins and can also act as a transcriptional regulators. Using the Palindrome Analyser tool, the frequency of IR and localization of inverted repeats in bacterial genomes was analyzed. The frequency of IR across the bacterial genome is variable. The frequency of short inverted repeats shows an approximately quadratic dependence on the %GC content in the genome with a minimum of about 50% of GC content. The localization of inverted repeats with respect to “annotated features” show a non-random distribution. The frequency of IR for most features is higher “outside” than “inside”