Search for Drosophila genes encoding a conserved domain present in the achaete-scute complex and myc proteins

Summary Several genes of the achaete-scute complex (ASC) of Drosophila melanogaster encode a 60 amino acids long conserved domain which shares a significant homology with a region of the vertebrate myc proteins. Based on these results, the existence of a family of Drosophila genes that would share both this conserved domain and the neurogenic function of the AS-C has been postulated. To test this proposal, we have searched a D. melanogaster genomic library with a probe that encodes the conserved domain. Only under very low stringency hybridization conditions, clones not belonging to the AS-C cross-hybridized with the probe. Those that gave the strongest signals were characterized. Sequencing of the cross-hybridizing regions showed that they had no significant homology with the conserved domain, the sequence similarity extending at the most for 37 nucleotides. Although our results do not conclusively disprove the existence of a family of AS-C-like genes, they indicate that the conservation of the domain would be lower than that found for shared motifs in other families of Drosophila developmental genes.     

Rearrangement,amplification, and assortment of mitochondrial DNA molecules in cultured cells of Brassica campestris

Summary We compared Brassica campestris mitochondrial and chloroplast DNAs from whole plants and from a 2-year-old cell culture. No differences were observed in the chloroplast DNAs (cpDNAs), whereas the culture mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was extensively altered. Hybridization analysis revealed that the alterations are due entirely to rearrangement. At least two inversions and one large duplication are found in the culture mtDNA. The duplication element is shown to have the usual properties of a plant mtDNA high frequency recombination repeat. The culture mtDNA exists as a complex heterogeneous population of rearranged and unrearranged molecules. Some of the culture-associated rearranged molecules are present in low levels in native plant tissue and appear to have sorted out and amplified in the culture. Other mtDNA rearrangements may have occurred de novo. In addition to alterations of the main mitochondrial genome, an 11.3 kb linear mtDNA plasmid present in whole plants is absent from the culture. Contrary to findings in cultured cells of other plants, small circular mtDNA molecules were not detected in the B. campestris cell culture.     

Differential amplification of antifreeze protein genes in the pleuronectinae

Summary The organization of antifreeze protein (AFP) genes in the yellowtail flounder was investigated by Southern blotting and the characterization of clones from a genomic library. This flounder, like the closely related winter flounder, has a set of 10–12 linked but irregularly spaced AFP genes. However, it lacks the tandemly amplified set of 20 such genes that are present in the winter flounder. DNA sequence analysis of a tandemly repeated gene from winter flounder showed that it can code for one of the two most abundant AFP components in the serum. Consistent with this higher AFP gene dosage, the peak serum AFP level in midwinter was 9 mg/ml in the winter flounder and only 4 mg/ml in the yellowtail flounder. A recent amplification of the AFP gene in the winter flounder lineage might be responsible for the higher serum AFP levels in this fish. This increase in gene dosage might have helped the winter flounder colonize the ice-laden, shallow-water niche that it currently occupies along the east coast of North America. Genomic Southern blotting of two other righteye flounders, the smooth flounder and the American plaice, illustrates another example of a differential amplification of AFP genes that correlates with a species' exposure to ice.     

The genomic relationship between cultivated sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] and Johnsongrass [S. halepense (L.) Pers.]: a re-evaluation

Summary The genomic relationship between cultivated sorghum [Sorghum bicolar (L.) Moench, race bicolor, De Wet, 2n=20] and Johnsongrass [S. halepense (L.) Pers., 2n=40] has been a subject of extensive studies. Nevertheless, there is no general consensus concerning the ploidy level and the number of genomes present in the two species. This research tested the validity of four major genomic models that have been proposed previously for the two species by studying chromosome behaviors in the parental species, 30-chromosome hybrids [sorghum, (2n=20) x Johnsongrass, (2n=40)], 40-chromosome hybrids [sorghum, (2n=40) x Johnsongrass, (2n=40)] and 60-chromosome amphiploids. Chromosome pairings of amphiploids are reported for the first time. Chromosomes of cultivated sorghums paired exclusively as 10 bivalents, whereas Johnsongrass had a maximum configuration of 5 ring quadrivalents with occasional hexavalents and octovalents. In contrast, 40-chromosome cultivated sorghum had up to 9 ring quadrivalents and 1 hexavalent. Pairing in the 30-chromosome hybrids showed a maximum of 10 trivalents, and that in the 40-chromosome hybrids exhibited 8 quadrivalents, 5 of which were rings, together with a few hexavalents. Amphiploid plants showed up to 3 ring hexavalents, 1 chain hexavalent and a chain of 12 chromosomes. The data suggest that cultivated sorghum is a tetraploid species with the genomic formula AAB1B1, and Johnsongrass is a segmental auto-allo-octoploid, AAAA B1B1B2B2. The model is further substantiated by chromosome pairing in amphiploid plants whose proposed genomic formula is AAAAAA B1B1B1B1 B2B2.Contribution no. 87-391-J from the Kansas Agriculatural Experiment Station     

Molecular cloning and characterization of the trpC gene from Penicillium chrysogenum

Summary We cloned the Penicillium chrysogenum trpC gene from a genomic library by complementation of an Escherichia coli trpC mutant lacking phosphoribosylanthranilate isomerase activity. The gene ecodes a 2.7 kb poly(A)⁺ RNA. We localized the gene by sequence analysis in a 2.9 kb DNA insert found in the smallest plasmid selected from the library. Sequence data strongly suggest that the organization of the gene is similar to that described in other Ascomycetes. We found that a DNA fragment which codes only for the carboxy-terminal protion of the polypeptide is sufficient for complementation of the E. coli trpC9830 mutation.     

A single dominant gene for Fusarium wilt resistance in protoplast-derived tomato plants

Summary Autotetraploids were established from 8 diploid wild species of section Arachis. In all the autotetraploids the chromosomes paired largely as bivalents even though they possess the ability to pair as multivalents. Pollen and pod fertility in the C₁ generation were not directly associated with chromosome pairing. The C₂ generation autotetraploids showed a gradual increase in bivalent associations and pollen and pod fertility. The identification of two genomes, A and B, in the diploid species and in the tetraploid, A. hypogaea, of the section Arachis, a fairly good crossability, and the type of chromosome associations observed in hybrids between A. hypogaea and the autotetraploids of wild Arachis species indicated good prospects of utilizing autotetraploids as genetic bridges in transferring desired traits from these taxa into groundnut.Submitted as Journal Article No. 516 by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)     

DNA sequence organization in the genomes of three related millet plant species

Summary A major portion of the genomes of three millet species, namely, barn yard millet, fox tail millet and little millet has been shown to consist of interspersed repeat and single copy DNA sequences. The interspersed repetitive DNA sequences are both short (0.15–1.0 kilo base pairs, 62–64% and long (>1.5 kilo base pairs, 36–38%) in barn yard millet and little millet while in fox tail millet, only long interspersed repeats (>1.5 kilo base pairs) are present. The length of the interspersed single copy DNA sequences varies in the range of 1.6–2.6 kilo base pairs in all the three species. The repetitive duplexes isolated after renaturation of 1.5 kilo base pairs and 20 kilo base pairs long DNA fragments exhibit a high thermal stability with Tms either equal to or greater than the corresponding native DNAs. The S1 nuclease resistant repetitive DNA duplexes also are thermally stable and reveal the presence of only 1–2% sequence divergence.The present data on the modes of sequence arrangement in millets substantiates the proposed trend in plants, namely, plants with 1C nuclear DNA content of less than 5 picograms have diverse patterns of sequence organization while those with 1C nuclear DNA content greater than 5 picograms have predominantly a short period interspersion pattern.Abbreviations kbp kilobase pairs NCL Communication No. 3606.     

Re-examination ofPyrenomonas andRhodomonas (class cryptophyceae) through ultrastructural survey of red pigmented cryptomonads

Several taxa of cryptomonads, including species of marineChroomonas, Cryptomonas and freshwaterRhodomonas were examined using transmission electron microscopy. They have cellular structures fundamentally in common: a single bilobed chlorplast, a single pyrenoid between the chloroplast lobes, and a nuclemorph embedded within a cleft of the pyrenoidal matrix. These features are in accordance with the taxonomic characteristics of the recently established genusPyrenomonas. The algae also have similar pigmentation to that ofRhodomonas andPyrenomonas which is red or reddish-brown. On the basis of these observations, the genusRhodomonas Karsten (1898) is redescribed in this paper and the genusPyrenomonas Santore is considered to be synonymous withRhodomonas.     

Gymnodinium aeruginosum (Dinophyta): A blue-green dinoflagellate with a vestigial,anucleate, cryptophycean endosymbiont

Gymnodinium aeruginosum has the usual fine structure of a dinoflagellate but does not seem to contain a well elaborated peduncle or a microtubular basket. Naked cells are surrounded by a single large amphiesmal vesicle. It houses an endosymbiont with typical blue-green cryptophycean chloroplasts (generally only one), cryptophycean starch grains in the periplastidal cytoplasm without a nucleomorph, and two membranes separating the periplastidal cytoplasm from the cryptophycean cytoplasm which contains mitochondria, ER, vesicles and ribosomes, but no eukaryotic nucleus. The endosymbiont is surrounded by a single membrane. Possible ways of the acquisition of the endosymbiont and the problem of the existence of ribosomes within a compartment without nucleus are discussed.Devoted to Prof. Dr.L. Geitler, the Nestor of phycology and endosymbiosis research, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of his birthday.