The ribosomal cistrons of the water mold Achlya bisexualis

DNA sequence organization in the water mold Achlya

Experiments are described that characterize the organization of DNA sequences in the water mold Achlya bisexualis. These experiments demonstrate that repetitive and single copy sequences in the Achlya genome are arranged in a long-period interspersion pattern. Estimates of the spacing intervals between repetitive and single copy DNA indicate, however, that the interspersion pattern in Achlya is longer than has been previously reported in other eukaryotes. These data and measurements of structural gene expression in Achlya [Timberlake, W.E., Shumard, D. S. & Goldberg, R. B. (1977) Cell 10, 623-632] make it difficult to propose a regulatory function for repeated DNA in this eukaryote.

Electron microscopy of Achlya deoxyribonucleic acid sequence organization

Electron microscopic analysis of reassociated deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from the aquatic fungus Achlya bisexualis revealed details of the sequence arrangement of the inverted repeats and both the highly and moderately repetitive sequence clusters. We used the gene 32 protein-ethidium bromide technique for visualizing the DNA molecules, a procedure which provides excellent contrast between single- and double-stranded DNA regions. Long (greater than 6-kilobase) DNA fragments were isolated after reannealing to two different repetitive C0t values, and the renatured structures were then visualized in an electron microscope. Our results showed that the inverted repeat sequences were short (0.5 kilobase, number-average) and separated by nonhomologous DNA of various lengths. These pairs of sequences were not clustered within the genome. Both highly repetitive and moderately repetitive DNA sequences were organized as tandem arrays of precisely paired, regularly repeating units. No permuted clusters of repeating sequences were observed, nor was there evidence of interspersion of repetitive with single-copy DNA sequences in the Achlya genome.

Ribosomal RNA cistrons in Allomyces arbuscula

Bulk and nuclear DNA have been fractionated by preparative neutral CsCl equilibrium density gradient centrifugation and each fraction hybridized to labeled rRNA (25 + 18 S). The cistrons coding for rRNA appeared on the light side of the main peak. Hybridization of the nuclear DNA fractionated by preparative Ag+-Cs2SO4 gradients at different pHs showed that the banding profile did not change as compared to the CsCl pattern. In Hg2+-Cs2SO4 gradients, however, the peak of the fRNA-DNA hybrids shifted on the heavier side of the profile. This indicates that the ribosomal RNA cistrons in Allomyces are A-T-rich. Hybridization with homologous rRNA showed that, at saturation, 3.25% of the DNA is complementary to rRNA. With the genome size of 1.7-10(10) daltons, the multiplicity of rRNA cistrons has been found to be close to 270.