Using yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the integrate vector system, we have isolated and characterized an autonomously replicating sequence (ARS) from Aspergillus nidulans. The DNA fragment, designated ANR1, is 5.0 kb in size and maintained free from the chromosome in S. cerevisiae. The YIplac211-ANR1 recombinant plasmid, which consists of sequences derived from the yeast integrative vector YIplac211 and 5.0 kb ANR1 fragment, showed a 104-fold enhancement in transformation efficiency over that found for YIplac211, and was easily recovered from the transformed yeast. Genetic analysis of transformants showed that YIplac21-ANR1 could be over 96% cured when cultured over 20 generations in complete medium and thus suggests that this sequence is mitotically unstable. In A. nidulans, recombinant plasmid PILJ16-4.5 which carries the 4.5 kb EcoRI fragment of ANR1 showed a 170-fold enhancement in transformation efficiency compared to that of the integrative vector PILJ16.