Denaturation map of the circular mitochondrial genome of Neurospora crassa

A denaturation map of mitochondrial DNA from the wild type strain 5256 of Neurospora crassa was constructed by computer analysis of the contour length distribution of single- and double-stranded regions of nineteen circular and three full length linear molecules after partial denaturation. The data suggest that mitochondrial DNA in this strain is a homogeneous population of a circular molecule of molecular weight 41 - 10(6) with an asymmetric distribution of AT-rich regions, and that linear molecules derive from this genome by random breaks during isolation.