Homology of Agaricus mitochondrial plasmids with mitochondrial DNA

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A strain of Agaricus bitorquis (Ag4) contains two linear plasmids, pEM and pMPJ. Restriction maps for these two plasmids were determined. Similar plasmid-like DNAs were found to be present in some other strains of A. bitorquis but none were found in strains of the commercial mushroom Agaricus bisporus. The three internal EcoRI fragments of pEM were cloned into a bacterial plasmid and were subsequently used as hybridization probes. The cloned portion of pEM has homology with sequences present in the mitochondrial genome of strains of A. bisporus and A. bitorquis, even those without pEM or any obvious extrachromosomal element. In addition, there are pEM homologous sequences within the mitochondrial genome of the source strain Ag4, which contain pEM and pMPJ as extrachromosomal elements.Key words: Agaricus, plasmid, mitochondrial DNA.