Comparative Analysis of Three Guinea Pig Satellite DNAs by Restriction Nucleases

Abstract

The structures of guinea pig satellite DNAs I, 11, and I11 have been analyzed by digestion with seven restriction nucleases. From the cleavage patterns it is obvious that the long-range periodicities in these three satellites differ rather characteristically.Satellite I is fairly resistant to six nucleases and gives only a number of weak discrete bands which do not show a simple regularity. By the restriction nuclease from Arthrobacter luteus, however, it is cleaved extensively and yields very heterogeneous breakdown products. This is consistent with the high extent of divergence previously found for this satellite, e. g. by sequence analysis.Satellite I1 is almost completely resistant to all nucleases, indicative of a high degree of sequence homogeneity of this satellite.Satellite I11 is completely broken by the restriction nuclease from Bacillus subtilis into fragments which form a novel, highly regular series of bands in gel electrophoresis. The patterns show that the satellite is composed of tandem repeats of approximately 215 nucleotide pairs length, each repeat unit containing two cleavage sites for this nuclease. The data are consistent with the assumption that 30-40% of all cleavage sites have been eliminated by a random process. Satellite I11 DNA yields weak degradation patterns of the same periodicity with a number of other restriction nucleases. Cleavage sites for these nucleases are clustered on separate small segments of the satellite DNA. In this respect, the satellite is similar to others, notably the mouse satellite DNA.The three guinea pig satellites are examples of more general types of satellite structures also found in other organisms. Similarities and differences to other satellites are discussed with special consideration to theories on the evolution of this class of DNA.Guinea pig DNA contains three satellite components which can be separated by density gradient centrifugation [l, 21. We have previously analyzed the digestion patterns of these satellite DNAs with the restriction nuclease endo R . Hind11 and found them to be strikingly different from each other [3]. Since it is interesting to compare the structures of three distinct simple sequence components within the same genome we have extended this work to include a number of other restriction nucleases. The results fully confirm the basic structural differences between the satellite DNAs. In the case of satellite I, they illustrate the high degree of divergence and complement the sequence data [4] and the results of renaturation kinetics [2]. For satellite I11 we had previously found that endo R . Hind11 cleaves a few follows the suggestions of Smith and Nathans [6]. percent of the DNA into a series of fragments which are integral multiples of a unit length piece [3]. We could show now by digestion with endo R . Bsu that this periodicity extends across the entire satellite which makes it quite similar to the mouse satellite DNA [S]. This prompted us to investigate in more detail how far common structural features between the two satel...

The organisation of the long range periodicity calf satellite DNA I variants as revealed by restriction enzyme analysis

“…The same mechanism can explain the patterns obtained with Hae III with mouse satellite DNA (2,9,17) and Hind II and guinea pig satellite III DNA respectively (11). In these examples, only small proportions (1 to 2°o%) of the satellite DNAs are susceptible to these enzymes and give rise to ladder patterns (type B pattern) with the same basic distance between the sites as for those present in the whole satellite DNA (type A patterns).…”

“…The existence of different sorts of heterogeneities in satellite DNAs has now been widely confirmed (9,11,12). When present in almost all of the repetition units, the sites have been called type A while those present in only a small portion of them have been called type B (9).…”

Uniform Distribution of Satellite DNA Variants on the Chromosomes of Tenebrionid Species Alphitobius Diaperinus and Tenebrio Molitor

“…Four related satellite DNAs produced the same hybridization pattern on all chromosomes, supporting the idea of their concerted evolution (HAMILTON et al 1992). Different from such random distribution, in a wide variety of higher eukaryotes satellite variants are clustered on particular chromosomes ( ALTENBURGER et al 1977;HORZ and ZACHAU 1977;WARBURTON and WILLARD 1990;HAAF et al 1993;BORSTNIK et al 1994) or form chromosome-specific subsets which are described for many of the human chromosomes (CHOO et al 1991).…”

Evidence for random distribution of sequence variants inTenebrio molitorsatellite DNA

“…This is the case with human alpha satellite DNA which makes 3-5 % of each chromosome and is organized in at least 33 different subfamilies identified up to now (Choo et al 1991 human alpha satellite DNA are clustered on a specific chromosomal subset (Warburton & Willard, 1990;Durfy, 1990). In the satellite DNA of the mouse and Guinea pig (Altenburger et al 1977) different sequence variants are organized in defined regions of satellite repeat. On the other hand, all transition stages during homogenization of randomly produced repeat variants can be found in two analysed tandemly repeated families of Drosophila (Strachan et al 1985).…”