Sequence heterogeneity of the mini-circles of kinetoplast DNA of Crithidia luciliae and evidence for the presence of a component more complex than mini-circle DNA in the kinetoplast network.
Exhaustive digestion of the 0.76 mum mini-circles of the kinetoplast DNA from Crithidia luciliae with endonuclease HapII yields at least 37 fragments with an added molecular weight of at least 24-10(6), i.e. about 16 times that of the mini-circle. The DNA isolated from cloned cells yields the same digestion pattern. Endonuclease EcoRI cuts only part of the mini-circles in each network. This proves that mini-circles are not homogeneous in sequence. Digestion of total kinetoplast DNA with HapII yields, in addition to the mini-circle fragments, 7 fragments with an added molecular weight of 16-10(6). We conclude that these are derived from a minor component of the network, with a higher sequence complexity than the mini-circles.
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004270:DNA, Circular / Q000032:analysis*; D003851:Deoxyribonucleases; D004720:Endonucleases; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000032:analysis*; D008970:Molecular Weight
D004270:DNA, Circular; D003851:Deoxyribonucleases; D004720:Endonucleases