Reversible gene silencing through frameshift indels and frameshift scars provide adaptive plasticity for Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Abstract

Bacterial adaptation through frame-shifting insertions and deletions (indels) could be reversed by secondary introduction of a frame-restoring indel. Here, the authors develop ScarTrek, a program that scans genomic data for different indels, and analyze 5977 clinical M. tuberculosis isolates for indel frequency.