Mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA from normal rat liver have a common sequence.

Although Pst I does not cut the circular mitochondrial genome of the rat, BamHI generates from this genome two unequal fragments of DNA. Each of these fragments was cloned in pBR322. Nuclear DNA was digested from rat liver singly or doubly with Pst I and BamHI, and it was demonstrated that nuclear DNA shared a common sequence with the larger mitochondrial DNA BamHI fragment. The cloned larger mitochondrial DNA fragment was further subdivided with HindIII into four pieces that were labeled and then used to probe the double-digested nuclear DNA. The hybridization data showed that the common sequence is less than 3 kilobase pairs long and lies within the part of the mitochondrial genome containing the D-loop and a portion of the rRNA genes. It therefore appears that, as in lower eukaryotes, there are shared sequences between the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes in mammals.