In silico Evaluation of mirror repeats within ced-9 Gene of Caenorhabditis elegans

Background: Repetitive elements constitute a significant proportion of metazoan genomes. These elements form different types of unusual structures, such as left-handed Z-DNA, triple-stranded H-DNA, G-quadruplex, and cruciform, and are related to various diseases. Methods: A simple and swift approach was used for the identification of mirror repeats within ced-9 gene of Caenorhabditis elegans. Another non-B-DNA tool was also utilized for the identification of mirror repeats. Results: We identified 53 mirror repeats within ced-9 gene of C. elegans, and these identified mirror repeats were explored among the genome of other organisms such as Caenorhabditis vulgaris, Xenopus tropicalis, and Drosophila melanogaster. Conclusions: At the first time, we have characterized mirror repeats within ced-9 gene of C. elegans. We identified some homopurine- and homopyrimidine-rich sequences that have the potential to form unusual DNA structures.