Abstract

A genomic DNA library of the fungus Trametes versicolor was constructed in a yeast integration vector which contains the URA3 gene of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the gene responsible for hygromycin B resistance, and fragments acting as autonomously replicating sequences (ARSes) in the budding yeast were identified from the genomic DNA library. Sixteen recombinant plasmids from the library transformed the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to Ura^+ at high frequencies. They were maintained stably under selective conditions, but were gradually lost from yeast cells at different rates under nonselective conditions, indicating that they contain eukaryotic origins of DNA replication and exist as extrachromosomal plasmids. Base sequences of four ARS DNAs among the 16 cloned fragments revealed that all of the four contain at least one 11 bp [(A/T)TTTA(T/C)(A/G)TTT(A/T)] consensus sequence of the budding yeast ARS.

• Keywords: ARS; Trametes versicolor; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; transformation; plasmid