Abstract
The genomes of seven plant species belonging to the genus Allium and exhibiting a threefold variation in their nuclear DNA content were analyzed by studying their reassociation kinetics, equilibrium centrifugation behavior in neutral CsCl gradients, and melting properties. The reassociation kinetics experiments revealed the presence of 44–65% repeated DNA sequences. A comparison between DNA contents and the proportion of repeated DNA sequences indicated that, in Allium, increase in the genome size is not exclusively due to variations in the proportions of repetitive DNA. The total DNA as well as the various repetitive DNA fractions in all the Allium species examined exhibited, in spite of a few differences, a gross similarity in their behavior in neutral CsCl gradients and in their melting properties.
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This study was supported by research grants from the Quebec Ministry of Education and from the National Research Council of Canada.
Paper IV in this series is P. K. Ranjekar, D. Pallotta, and J. G. Lafontaine (1978). Analysis of plant genomes. IV. Isolation and characterization of satellite DNA components from two dicotyledons, cucumber (Cucumis sativus) and radish (Raphanus sativus). Can. J. Biochem (in press).
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Ranjekar, P.K., Pallotta, D. & Lafontaine, J.G. Analysis of plant genomes. V. Comparative study of molecular properties of DNAs of seven Allium species. Biochem Genet 16, 957–970 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00483747
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00483747