  Gene assembly in ciliates is one of the most involved DNA processings going
on in any organism. This process transforms one nucleus (the micronucleus) into
another functionally different nucleus (the macronucleus). We continue the
development of the theoretical models of gene assembly, and in particular we
demonstrate the use of the concept of the breakpoint graph, known from another
branch of DNA transformation research. More specifically: (1) we characterize
the intermediate gene patterns that can occur during the transformation of a
given micronuclear gene pattern to its macronuclear form; (2) we determine the
number of applications of the loop recombination operation (the most basic of
the three molecular operations that accomplish gene assembly) needed in this
transformation; (3) we generalize previous results (and give elegant
alternatives for some proofs) concerning characterizations of the micronuclear
gene patterns that can be assembled using a specific subset of the three
molecular operations.
