Deoxyribonucleic acid base composition and genome size ofProchloron

✍ Scribed by Michael Herdman

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 289 KB
• Volume: 129
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0302-8933
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00414704

✦ Synopsis

The D N A base composition of the photosynthetic prokaryote Prochloron was determined (on samples collected from the natural environment) to be 40.8mo1% GC. The sharp differential melting curve indicated the absence of significant quantities of contaminating D N A from other organisms. The genome size, estimated from the renaturation kinetics of thermally denatured D N A , was 3.59 • 109 daltons mol. wt, similar to that of m a n y other prokaryotes. The fact that Prochloron has not yet been cultured in the laboratory cannot, therefore, be attributed to a reduced genetic information content.