SINE-LIKE PROPERTIES OF A HIGHLY REPETITIVE ELEMENT IN THE GENOME OF THE OBLIGATE PARASITIC FUNGUS ERYSIPHE-GRAMINIS F SP HORDEI

The genomic organization of repetitive DNA in the obligate parasitic f ungus Erysiphe graminis DC ex Merat f.sp. hordei Em. Marchal was inves tigated using a cosmid library of the fungal genome. Three repetitive sequences were shown to be dispersed throughout the genome, and in a f ew cases they were found closely associated with long poly(dA) tracts. The most prevalent sequence is 903 bp long and accounts for at least 5% of the genome. Sequence analysis revealed features resembling mamma lian Short INterspersed Elements (SINEs), namely the presence of a pol y(dA) tail (33 bp), flanking direct repeats (13 bp), putative ''A'' an d ''B'' blocks for RNA polymerase III binding; the corresponding trans cript would be capable of forming a complex secondary structure.