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).
Read more about Inverted Repeat: Examples
Famous quotes containing the words inverted and/or repeat:
“Can they never tell
What is dragging them back, and how it will end? Not at night?
Not when the strangers come? Never, throughout
The whole hideous inverted childhood? Well,
We shall find out.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“One person tells an idle story; ten thousand repeat it as truth.”
—Chinese proverb.