An adaptive mechanism used by microbes to avoid detection by the host or adapt to changes in environment by randomly and rapidly switch on and off of a gene by various mechanisms between on and off phases. For instance, drug tolerant MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS arises through rapid reversible mutations in the glpK gene through phase variation.
An adaptive mechanism used by microbes to avoid detection by the host or adapt to changes in environment by randomly and rapidly switch on and off of a gene by various mechanisms between on and off phases. For instance, drug tolerant MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS arises through rapid reversible mutations in the glpK gene through phase variation.
