The Isolation of DNA Sequences Flanking Tn5 Transposon Insertions by Inverse PCR

Because of its versatility, the Tn5 transposon has become a powerful tool in the classical genetic studies of Gram-negative bacteria. The Tn5 transposon is functional in a broad range of Gram-negative bacteria and transposes at a high frequency with low specificity of insertion (1 ,2 ), allowing it to insert in a large number of locations in bacterial genomes. The initial use of the Tn5 transposon was in the identification of disrupted genes by insertion muatgenesis and phenotypic screening, however, derivatives of this mobile element were later developed for use in reporter gene fusion (3 ) and promoter probing experiments (4 ).