Characterization of inverted repeated sequences in Ascaris nuclear DNA.

The inverted repeated sequences of the chromatin-eliminating nematode Ascaris lumbricoides var. suum have been examined by electron microscopy and by hydroxyapatite chromatography, both in the germ-line and in the somatic DNA. 38% of the inverted repeats of the germ-line DNA analysed in the electron microscope have a single-stranded loop, in comparison to about 50% of looped structures in the somatic DNA. The loops are on average 2.3 X 10(3) base pairs (bp) long. The rest of the foldback DNA consists of simple hairpins. The average length of looped and unlooped inverted repeats is of the order of 300-400 bp in the germ-line and in the somatic DNA. The content of S1-resistant foldback duplexes isolated by hydroxyapatite chromatography amounts to 1.3% in spermatids, with an average length of 350 bp, and to 1.1% in intestinal or larval cell nuclei, with a length of about 320 bp. We estimate by two different methods that there exist approximately 12500 inverted repeats per haploid germ-line genome and approximately 8000 in the haploid somatic genome. A statistical analysis of the data indicates that the great majority of the foldback sequences are randomly distributed in the Ascaris genome, with a spacing of about (40-80) X 10(3) bp, both in the germ-line and in the somatic DNA.