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Sensitivity of intergenic regions of yeast mitochondrial DNA to single‐strand‐specific nucleases
Author(s) -
Piškur Jure
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(88)80527-1
Subject(s) - biology , mitochondrial dna , intergenic region , dna , genetics , saccharomyces cerevisiae , plasmid , yeast , microbiology and biotechnology , genome , gene
The reactivity of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from Torulopsis glabrata and Saccharomyces cerevisiae towards single‐strand‐specific nucleases has been examined. AT‐rich stretches located in intergenic sequences from both yeasts were cleaved by nucleases when the sequences were contained in supercoiled plasmid DNA. In particular ori/rep sequences from the mtDNA of S. cerevisiae were shown to be sensitive to the single‐strand‐specific nucleases. The locations of the sensitive sites were related to the organisation of the sequence domains of ori/rep and the superhelicity of the DNA, as well as the presence of particular sequences. It is proposed that distortions of the DNA duplex could be generated in mtDNA molecules in vivo and that these distortions may provide a substrate for enzymes involved in transmission, recombination and/or transcription of mtDNA.