Isolation and characterization of full‐length chromosomes from non‐culturable plant‐pathogenic Mycoplasma‐like organisms

摘要: We describe the isolation and characterization of full-length chromosomes from non-culturable plant-pathogenic, mycoplasma-like organisms (MLOs). MLO are circular their sizes (640 to 1185 kbp) heterogeneous. Divergence in range chromosome is apparent between MLOs two major disease groups, size polymorphism occurs among some related agents. overlap those culturable mycoplasmas; consequently, small genome alone cannot explain non-culturability. Hybridization with cloned MLO-specific chromosomal 16S rRNA probes detected separate 'type' strains. Large DNA molecules that appear be megaplasmids were also demonstrated. The ability characterize virtually any prokaryote should greatly facilitate molecular genetic analysis these difficult bacteria.