The KpnI family of long interspersed nucleotide sequences is present on discrete sizes of circular DNA in monkey (BSC-1) cells

Abstract

Discretely sized molecules of small circular DNAs in African green monkey kidney (BSC-1) cells contain nucleotide sequences homologous to the KpnI family of long interspersed repetitive nucleotide sequences. The size distribution of these KpnI family-containing circular DNAs differs markedly from those of BSC-1 cell circular DNAs containing either the Alu family of short interspersed nucleotide sequences or the alpha-satellite family of tandemly repeated sequences. The structures of several cloned, apparently whole, KpnI family-related circular DNAs of varying sizes were analyzed and compared with a compilation of chromosomal KpnI sequences. In general, it was found that the cloned DNAs all contained only KpnI sequences, and that the recombination events given rise to them did not involve any noticeable gain of nucleotides.