The Presence of Ribonucleotides in Mature Closed-Circular Mitochondrial DNA

Abstract
Mitochondrial DNA from mouse and HeLa cells is nicked by alkali and chick-embryo ribonuclease H. It has been concluded that ribonucleotides are present in the closed-circular duplex. A comparative study of the scission rates at pH 13.0 of RNA and of mitochondrial DNAs indicates that there are no more than 10 ribonucleotides in the major fraction of the mitochondrial DNAs.