keep the two strands within close enough proximity in order to allow for repair of the strands. Next the ends of the DNA are repaired such that any incorrect or damaged nucleotides are removed. Once this happens the strands are able to be ligated together such that they are a single strand of DNA which previously had not been adjacent. This process is common for eukaryotic cells and tends to act as a repair mechanism, but can lead to these mutations if illegitimate recombination occurs. The illegitimate recombination will often take the form of large chromosomal aberrations within a eukaryotic organism as it has much larger segments of DNA than prokaryotic cells. As of such non-homologous end joining can cause illegitimate recombination which creates insertion and deletion mutations in chromosomes as well as translocation of one chromosomal segment to that of another chromosome. These large scale changes in the chromosome in eukaryotic organisms tend to have deleterious effects on the organism rather than conferring a type of genetic advantage. Deleterious effects on organisms Illegitimate recombination oftentimes has deleterious effects on an organism as it results in a large scale change on the genetic sequence of an organism. These changes will result in mutations as the joining of DNA not based on homology will most often place genetic elements in locations in which they previously had not been placed. This can disrupt the function of genes which may be essential to the function of an organism. In the case of cancer it has been found that tumors can be a result of illegitimate recombination resulting in hairpin formation which alters the gene function within the genome of tumor cells. Applications Illegitimate recombination is a tool which can be used in the laboratory as well as it is a useful research tool. Illegitimate recombination can generate random mutagenesis in order to generate a random alteration of the genetic sequence of an organism. The induction of this mutagenesis allows for the study of a genetic sequence by creating a mutation in a genetic segment altering the function of that genetic segment. This allows for the study of gene function through the analysis of differences between mutants and natural organisms to interpret what process a gene is linked to. References DNA repair Molecular genetics Mutated genes