Electrophoretic Karyotyping of Lagenidium gigantism

Electrophoretic Karyotyping of Lagenidium gigantism

Lagenidium giganteum is a watermold, known to be a parasite to the larval stage of mosquitoes. This organism is of interest because it can essentially infect and kill mosquito larvae, which means it could possibly be used as a potential alternative to chemical insecticides. Before Lagenidium giganteum can be used as an insecticide, an understanding of how the organism infects and kills mosquitoes research is currently conducted at the molecular level. To complement a large-scale sequencing project, an electrophoretic karyotype was performed on Lagenidium giganteum to determine the number of chromosomes the organism has. The electrophoretic karyotype of Lagenidium giganteum was produced by contour-clamped homogenous electric field (CHEF) gel electrophoresis. The chromosomal bands of Lagenidium giganteum were separated. The sizes of these bands were estimated based on migration relative to those of chromosomal DNA of Hansenula wingei. The genome size was determined.