DNA sequence organization in the common Pacific starfish Pisaster ochraceous.

Abstract

The sequence arrangement of the genomic DNA from the common sea star Pisaster ochraceous has been examined. Reassociation kinetics at DNA fragment lengths of 300 base pairs (bp) indicate the presence of at least three repetitive components in this DNA. The majority of these repetitive sequences are reiterated over the range from 10 to 100's. Approximately one-third of the nucleotides are found in repetitive sequences. Analysis of the reassociation kinetics of 3000-bp DNA fragments demonstrates the interspersion of repetitive and unique DNA sequences. The hyperchromicity of 3000-bp fragments reassociated to low Cot values (the product of moles of nucleotide per litre and time in seconds), and the size distribution of S1 nuclease resistant DNA duplex in these reassociation products, indicate a short-period interspersion pattern in the starfish genome. Repetitive segments (400 +/- 100 bp) are interspersed with longer unique DNA sequences. At a fragment length of 3000 bp the major fraction of the single-copy DNA is found in such an arrangement. In addition to short repetitive segments a substantial portion of the repetitive DNA nucleotides are found in segments excluded by Sepharose CL-2B (greater than or equal to 2000 bp). As much as one-quarter of the repetitive sequence nucleotides can be assigned to long segments.