Relatedness of mouse satellite deoxyribonucleic acid to deoxyribonucleic acid of various Mus species

Abstract

Mouse (Mus musculus musculus) satellite DNA is able to reassociate with repeated DNA sequences of Mus caroli and Mus cervicolor, but low thermal stability of the products indicates significant differences between satellite and related DNAs of these two Mus species. There appear to be several satellite-related populations in M. caroli DNA, each of which forms hybrids of low thermal stability with repeated sequences of M. cervicolor DNA. DNAs from the subspecies Mus musculus molossinus and Mus musculus castaneus reassociate with mouse satellite to form hybrids of very high thermal stability, but the satellite content of M. m. musculus DNA is only about 60% that of M. m. musculus DNA. Reassociation of M. m. musculus nonrepeated DNA with M. m. molossinus DNA reveals no detectable differences between them; reassociation with M. caroli (or M. cervicolor) DNA yields a product whose melting temperature depression relative to homologous DNA is about 5 degrees .