Positioning of the A . T-rich regions in rat mitochondrial DNA by electron microscopy and analysis of the hysteresis of denaturation.

Intramolecular heterogeneity in the base composition of rat mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was shown by a combination of an improved denaturation mapping technique using electron microscopy and analysis of high-resolution optical melting-renaturation profiles. Circular mtDNA starts to melt in one specific region and then forms loops in four other regions in random order. These five early melting regions are all located in one half of the molecule. The arrangement of the early melting regions in rat mtDNA bears a remarkable resemblance not only to those of mtDNAs from several species of Drosophila but also to those of several species of Drosophila but also to those of several plasmid DNAs and phage DNA.