HUMAN UREAPLASMAS SHOW DIVERSE GENOME SIZES BY PULSED-FIELD ELECTROPHORESIS

Contour clamped homogeneous field (CHEF) agarose gel electrophoresis (AGE), ramped to give linear separation of DNA molecules of 600-1600 kllobase pairs (kbp), was used to determine mobilities for full-sized genomic DNA of the serotype standard strains of the human genital mollicutes, Ureaplasma urealyticum relative to yeast chromosomal DNA markers. Indicated genome sizes (in kbp) were 760 for the four biotype 1 strains and 840-1140 for eleven biotype 2 strains. Other estimates were: 720 for Mycoplasma hominis, 1070 for Mycoplasma hyopneumonlae, 890 for Mycoplasma flocculare, 1180 and 1350 for Mycoplasma mycoldes subsp. mycoides Y and GC1176-2, respectively, and 1650 and 1580 for Acholeplasma laldiawii B and PG 8, respectively. These data supplement previous evidence from CHEF AGE that the genomes of the Mycoplasmataceae are diverse in size with some larger than previously estimated from DNA renaturation kinetics. © 1990 Oxford University Press.