The kinetoplast DNA of Trypanosoma equiperdum

A. C.C. Frasch*, S. L. Hajduk, J. H.J. Hoeijmakers, P. Borst, F. Brunel, J. Davidson

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

60 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We have analyzed the kinetoplast DNA from Trypanosoma equiperdum (American Type Culture Collection 30019) and two dyskinetoplastic strains derived from it. The DNA networks from the kinetoplastic strain are made up of catenated mini-circles and maxi-circles, like the networks from the closely-related Trypanosoma brucei. The mini-circles of T. equiperdum lack the pronounced sequence heterogeneity of T. brucei mini-circles, as shown by the fragment distribution of restriction digests and by the predominance of well-matched duplexes in electron micrographs of renatured DNA. The electrophoretic analysis of kinetoplast DNA digested with various restriction endonucleases shows the maxi-circle of T. equiperdum to consist of circular DNA molecules of 8.4 · 106 daltons, without size or sequence heterogeneity or repetitious segments. A comparison of the sequence of this maxi-circle with that of T. brucei (13.4 · 106 daltons) by restriction endonuclease fragmentation and hybridization shows extensive sequence homology. The size difference between both maxi-circles is due to the deletion of one continuous segment of 5 · 106 daltons. In the two dyskinetoplastic strains, we cannot detect DNA sequences that hybridize with kinetoplast DNA from T. brucei or from the kinetoplastic strain of T. equiperdum. In one of these strains, a 'low-density' DNA fraction contained a simple sequence DNA, cleaved by restriction endonuclease HindIII into fragments of 180 base-pairs and multimers of this. The relation of this DNA to kinetoplast DNA, if any, is unknown.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)397-410
Number of pages14
JournalBBA Section Nucleic Acids And Protein Synthesis
Volume607
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 May 1980
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

© Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press

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