Cloning and physical mapping of RNA polymerase genes from Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum and comparison of homologies and gene orders with those of RNA polymerase genes from other methanogenic archaebacteria.

The structural genes encoding the four largest subunits of RNA polymerase, A, B', B", and C, were physically mapped in Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum Winter. The genes formed a cluster in the order B", B', A, C and had a common orientation. DNA hybridization experiments yielded different degrees of homology between RNA polymerase gene sequences of different species of Methanobacterium and Methanococcus voltae. No homology was detectable between Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum and Methanosarcina barkeri. From Southern hybridization experiments in which probes of the four genes from Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum Winter and restriction digests of the genomic DNAs of the different methanogens were used, a common gene order of the RNA polymerase genes could be deduced.