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. 1980 Sep;143(3):1194–1199. doi: 10.1128/jb.143.3.1194-1199.1980

Covalently closed circular deoxyribonucleic acids in spiroplasmas.

J M Ranhand, W O Mitchell, T J Popkin, R M Cole
PMCID: PMC294476  PMID: 7410316

Abstract

Ten of twelve spiroplasma strains from different sources carried multiple covalently closed circular duplex deoxyribonucleic acid molecules, as shown by ethidium bromide-cesium chloride gradient centrifugation of cell lysates and examination of resulting bands by electron microscopy and agarose gel electrophoresis. Two to eight size classes per strain, comprising molecules of masses from 1 X 10(6) to 26 X 10(6), were detected. Several size classes of molecules were found in common in different spiroplasma strains. The amount of covalently closed circular deoxyribonucleic acid per strain was as much as 12% of total cellular deoxyribonucleic acid. The presence of sizes of the circular molecules appeared unrelated to either carriage or active production of known spiroplasma viruses, and it is tentatively concluded that they are plasmids rather than genomes or replicative forms of viruses.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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