Recombination between heterologous linear and circular mitochondrial plasmids in the fungus Neurospora

A strain of Neurospora intermedia from China contains five prominent extragenomic mitochondrial plasmids: three linear elements called zhisi plasmids, and two circular plasmids, Harbin-1 and -2. In one subculture, levels of four plasmids (all three zhisis and Harbin-1) fell to undetectable values and two novel linear plasmids appeared, Harbin-L and -L2, as well as a new small circular plasmid, Harbin-0.9. Cross-hybridization of restriction fragments and DNA sequencing showed that the Harbin-L plasmid was composed of parts of the circular Harbin-1 plasmid and of one of the linear zhisi plasmids. A model is presented in which the Harbin-1 and zhisi plasmids are present within the same mitochondrion, and crossovers at two separate 7 bp sites of sequence identity effectively insert part of the circular Harbin-1 DNA into a zhisi linear plasmid, simultaneously deleting part of the zhisi element. The small plasmid Harbin-0.9 is a fragment of the Har-1 plasmid, and seems to be another product of the recombination process that created Har-L. Recombination of this type could have contributed to the wide array of mitochondrial plasmids found in natural populations of Neurospora.