Two Neurospora mitochondrial plasmids encode DNA polymerases containing motifs characteristic of family B DNA polymerases but lack the sequence Asp-Thr-Asp.

We have determined the DNA sequence of the mitochondrial plasmid from Neurospora intermedia strain Fiji N6-6. The plasmid contains a 1278-codon open reading frame that is 49% identical to the open reading frame of the mitochondrial plasmid from the LaBelle strain of N. intermedia, which is known to encode a DNA-dependent DNA polymerase. The results of polymerase assays and photolabeling studies, the high degree of identity with the LaBelle plasmid polymerase, and the observation that the Fiji polymerase activity in a reaction utilizing endogenous template is not affected by removal of RNA suggest that the Fiji plasmid also encodes a DNA-dependent DNA polymerase. Comparison of regions of amino acids that are highly conserved in the two plasmid polymerases to family B polymerases reveals good correlates for the three major polymerase motifs and suggests that previously identified motifs characteristic of reverse transcriptase found in the LaBelle sequence are not significant. The polymerases encoded by the Fiji and LaBelle plasmids are unusual in that the amino acid sequence Asp-Thr-Asp, which forms the core of the third motif in family B polymerases, is not present in either Fiji or LaBelle. A version of the motif containing Thr-Thr-Asp exists in both sequences.