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A plasmid in the archaebacterium Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum

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Summary

The archaebacterium Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum Marburg (DSM 2133) was found to contain a plasmid (pME2001) in covalently closed circular form. It was isolated by CsCl gradient centrifugation of total DNA in the presence of ethidium bromide. Multimers up to the hexamer were observed upon agarose gel electrophoresis and electron microscopy of a purified plasmid perparation. A restriction map was constructed. The length of plasmid pME2001 was determined to be approximately 4,500 bp. Southern hybridization of plasmid DNA to DNA extracted from Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum ΔH (DSM1053) revealed the presence of a plasmid with homologous sequences in the ΔH strain.

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Communicated by A. Böck

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Meile, L., Kiener, A. & Leisinger, T. A plasmid in the archaebacterium Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum . Molec. Gen. Genet. 191, 480–484 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00425766

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00425766

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