APPLICATION OF RANDOM AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHIC DNA (RAPD) ASSAYS IN IDENTIFYING CONSERVED REGIONS OF ACTINOMYCETE GENOMES

Various arbitrary primers as well as pUC18/19 'reverse' sequencing pri mers were used for random amplified polymorphic DNA assays. Use of a m odified reverse primer led to amplification of one major approx. 1100- bp band from the chromosomal DNA of all actinomycetes tested; however, the band was not found when DNAs from other bacteria were used in com parable experiments. Hybridization experiments showed that these bands all contained similar genomic regions. Subsequent sequencing of four of these fragments showed they each contained the sequence of the 3' e nd of the 23S rRNA gene, the intergenic region and the start of the 5S rRNA gene.