Restriction Site Mapping of the Mitochondrial DNA of the Four-Wing Flyingfish, Hirundichthys affinis

Abstract

Mitochondrial DNA was isolated from samples of the four-wing flyingfish, Hirundickthys affinis, collected in Barbados in January 1996 and subjected to restriction enzyme analysis, using 13 restriction endonucleases which recognise hexanucleotide sequences, in single and double digests. The resulting restricted DNA fragments were used to map the 14 enzyme recognition sites of 6 endonucleases (7 had no sites) on the flyingfish mtDNA molecule for the first time. In addition, the mtDNA D-loop region was positioned on the restriction site map, for the first time, by selective restriction digestion of the mtDNA molecule followed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the resulting fragments using specific mtDNA D-loop primers. The size of the flyingfish mtDNA molecule (18 kb) was also determined.

Key Words:

• Hirundichthys affinis
• mtDNA
• restriction site map
• flyingfish