Phenotype of a temperature-sensitive, respiration-deficient (cyt) mutant of yeast

A temperature-sensitive respiration-deficient mutant of yeast lacks hemoproteins and accumulates coproporphyrin III when cultivated at elevated temperatures. Cells grown at 20 C respired normally and contained cytochromes a, b, and c. Cells grown at 35 C showed respiration-deficient mutant characters; they did not respire, lacked cytochromes, and accumulated coproporphyrin III. Addition of protoporphyrin IX or protohemin IX to the culture medium restored the respiratory activity of this mutant during growth at 35 C. The activities of various enzymes, including succinate-2,6-dichlorophenol indophenol (DCPIP), reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH(2))-DCPIP, succinate-cytochrome c, and NADH(2)-cytochrome c oxidoreductase, and cytochrome oxidase, and the cytochrome c content of cells cultured in various conditions were determined. Changes in the number and structure of mitochondria were associated with changes in respiratory activity.

Coproporphyrinogenase in a respiration-deficient mutant of yeast lacking all cytochromes and accumulating coproporphyrin

In an earlier report, a respiration-deficient mutant of yeast which lacks all cytochromes and hemoproteins and accumulates coproporphyrin was described. This respiration-deficient mutant was temperature-sensitive and resulted from the single chromosomal gene(cyt). In this study, the activity of coproporphyrinogenase, catalyzing the conversion of coproporphyrinogen to protoporphyrinogen, was assayed in the cyt mutant and wild strains. Coproporphyrinogenase activity was 10 times higher in the cyt mutant than in the wild strains. Cells of the cyt mutant grown at 20 C had less activity than those grown at 35 C. The Michaelis constants, pH optima, and temperature activations of the enzymes of the cyt mutant and the wild strains were similar. The significance of the higher activity of this enzyme in the cyt mutant, in which this enzymatic step is apparently blocked in vivo, is discussed.