Cytochrome b-deficiency in a mitochondrial muc1muc2 recombinant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Increased diuron resistance in the joint expression of mutations located at the DIU2, DIU3 and DIU4 loci of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, diuron blocks the respiratory pathway at the level of the bc1 complex. Two mitochondrially inherited loci, DIU1 and DIU2, located in the cytochrome b gene, and two nuclearly inherited loci, DIU3 and DIU4, have previously been identified. The present work genetically characterizes two double mutants. One mutant, Diu-217, carries two nuclearly inherited mutations, diu3-217a and diu-217b; the second mutant, Diu-783, carries the previously described nuclear mutation diu3-783 and a mitochondrial mutation diu2-783. Each mutation, independent of its location, exhibits a weak diuron resistance. The joint expression of two or three mutations leads to a cumulative or a cooperative enhanced diuron-resistant phenotype.

Influence of the nuclear gene tmp3 on the loss of mitochondrial genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae tmp3 mutant is deficient in the mitochondrial enzyme complex that participates in the formation of one-carbon-group-tetrahydrofolate coenzymes, serine transhydroxymethylase, dihydrofolate reductase, and thymidylate synthetase, thus leading to multiple nutritional requirements of dTMP, adenine, histidine, and methionine. The tmp3 mutant quickly loses its mitochondrial genome even when grown on fully supplemented medium or on a high concentration of 5-formyl tetrahydrofolate, which replaces all the four requirements. A study of the loss of the mitochondrial genome by following several mitochondrial genetic markers showed that there was a preferential specific loss of a large region of the mitochondrial genome, covering mit ts983, Er, Cr, and mit ts982 up to OrI, and retention of the region of Pr and mit tscs1297. A kinetic study showed that there was a preferentially rapid loss of the region covering the mit+ alleles ts983 to tscs902 at the rate of 10% per generation.