Genomic inversion

Syntenic dotplot generated by SynMap between two strains of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis showing one inversion. Strain IP 31758 (x-axis); strain YPIII (y-axis). Results can be regenerated at: http://synteny.cnr.berkeley.edu/CoGe/SynMap.pl?dsgid1=1911;dsgid2=1906;D=20;g=10;A=5;w=0;b=1;ft1=1;ft2=1;dt=geneorder

Definition

A genomic inversion is when a region of a genome or chromosome gets flipped in place. These usually happen at genomic regions with nearly identical sequence, implying a mechanism similar to non-homologous recombination.

=Bacteria

In bacterial genomes, inversion often occur at transposon or ribosomal gene sequences, and happen symmetrically around the origin of replication. The latter causes a characteristic pattern in syntenic dotplots called an x alignment.