Size and base composition of RNA in supercoiled plasmid DNA

The average size and base composition of the covalently integrated RNA segment in supercoiled ColE(1) DNA synthesized in Escherichia coli in the presence of chloramphenicol (CM-ColE(1) DNA) have been determined by two independent methods. The two approaches yielded similar results, indicating that the RNA segment in CM-ColE(1) DNA contains GMP at the 5' end and comprises on the average 25 to 26 ribonucleotides with a base composition of 10-11 G, 3 A, 5-6 C, and 6-7 U.