An electrophoretic karyotype of Aspergillus niger

Abstract

An electrophoretic karyotype of Aspergillus niger was obtained using contour-clamped homogeneous electric field (CHEF) gel electrophoresis. Chromosome-sized DNA was separated into four bands. Seven of the eight linkage groups could be correlated with specific chromosomal bands. For this purpose DNA preparations from seven transformant strains of A. niger each carrying the heterologous amdS gene of Aspergillus nidulans on a different chromosome were analysed. Some of the assignments were confirmed with linkage group-specific A. niger probes. The estimated sizes of the A. niger chromosome range from 3.5 to 6.6 Mb, based on gel migration relative to the chromosomes of Schizosaccharomyces pombe strains, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and A. nidulans. The total genome size of A. niger significantly exceeds that of A. nidulans and is estimated to be about 35.5-38.5 Mb. Electrophoretic karyotyping was used to allocate non-mutant rRNA genes and to estimate the number of plasmids integrated in a high copy number transformant.