Size and complexity of the nuclear genome of Colletotrichum graminicola

Abstract

DNA reassociation was used to estimate GC content, size, and complexity of the nuclear genomes of Colletotrichum from maize and sorghum. Melting- temperature analysis indicated that the GC content of the maize pathotype DNA was 51% and that the GC content of the sorghum pathotype was 52%. DNA reassociation kinetics employing S1 nuclease digestion and an appropriately modified second-order equation indicated that the genome sizes of the maize and sorghum pathotypes were 4.8 x 107 bp and 5.0 x 107 bp, respectively. Genomic reconstruction experiments based on Southern blot hybridization between a cloned single-copy gene, PYR1 (orotate phosphoribosyl transferase), and maize-pathotype DNA confirmed the size of the nuclear genome. The single- copy component of the genomes of both pathotypes was estimated at about 90%. For both pathotypes, ca. 7% of the genome represented repetitive DNA, and 2 to 3% was foldback DNA.