Abstract

The structure of plasmid mlp1, a linear 10.2kb mitochondrial plasmid of Pleurotus ostreatus NFF A2 was determined by restriction enzyme mapping and partial sequencing. The plasmid encodes at least two proteins; a putative RNA polymerase showing homology to yeast mitochondrial RNA polymerase and to viral-encoded RNA polymerases, and a putative DNA polymerase showing significant homology to the family B thpe DNA polymerases. It also contains terminal inverted repeat sequences at both ends which are longer than 274 bp. A 1.6 kb EcoRI restriction fragment of m1p1 containing the putative RNA polymerase gene did not hybridize to the nuclear or motochondrial genomes from P. ostreatus, suggesting that it may encode plasmidspecific RNA polymerase. The gene fragment also did not hybridize with the RNA polymerase gene (RPO41) from Saccaromyces cerevisiae. The relationship between genes in m1p1 and those in another linear plasmid pC1K1 of Claviceps purpurea was examined by DNA hybridization. The result indicates that the genes for DNA and RNA polymerases are not closely related with those in C. purpurea.

• Keywords: Linear mitochondrial plasmid; pleurotus ostreatus; mitochondrial RNA polymerase; B type DNA polymerase