scholarly journals Conversion at large intergenic regions of mitochondrial DNA in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1530-1537 ◽  
Author(s):  
P J Skelly ◽  
G D Clark-Walker

Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondrial DNA deletion mutants have been used to examine whether base-biased intergenic regions of the genome influence mitochondrial biogenesis. One strain (delta 5.0) lacks a 5-kilobase (kb) segment extending from the proline tRNA gene to the small rRNA gene that includes ori1, while a second strain (delta 3.7) is missing a 3.7-kb region between the genes for ATPase subunit 6 and glutamic acid tRNA that encompasses ori7 plus ori2. Growth of these strains on both fermentable and nonfermentable substrates does not differ from growth of the wild-type strain, indicating that the deletable regions of the genome do not play a direct role in the expression of mitochondrial genes. Examination of whether the 5- or 3.7-kb regions influence mitochondrial DNA transmission was undertaken by crossing strains and examining mitochondrial genotypes in zygotic colonies. In a cross between strain delta 5.0, harboring three active ori elements (ori2, ori3, and ori5), and strain delta 3.7, containing only two active ori elements (ori3 and ori5), there is a preferential recovery of the genome containing two active ori elements (37% of progeny) over that containing three active elements (20%). This unexpected result, suggesting that active ori elements do not influence transmission of respiratory-competent genomes, is interpreted to reflect a preferential conversion of the delta 5.0 genome to the wild type (41% of progeny). Supporting evidence for conversion over biased transmission is shown by preferential recovery of a nonparental genome in the progeny of a heterozygous cross in which both parental molecules can be identified by size polymorphisms.

1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1530-1537
Author(s):  
P J Skelly ◽  
G D Clark-Walker

Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondrial DNA deletion mutants have been used to examine whether base-biased intergenic regions of the genome influence mitochondrial biogenesis. One strain (delta 5.0) lacks a 5-kilobase (kb) segment extending from the proline tRNA gene to the small rRNA gene that includes ori1, while a second strain (delta 3.7) is missing a 3.7-kb region between the genes for ATPase subunit 6 and glutamic acid tRNA that encompasses ori7 plus ori2. Growth of these strains on both fermentable and nonfermentable substrates does not differ from growth of the wild-type strain, indicating that the deletable regions of the genome do not play a direct role in the expression of mitochondrial genes. Examination of whether the 5- or 3.7-kb regions influence mitochondrial DNA transmission was undertaken by crossing strains and examining mitochondrial genotypes in zygotic colonies. In a cross between strain delta 5.0, harboring three active ori elements (ori2, ori3, and ori5), and strain delta 3.7, containing only two active ori elements (ori3 and ori5), there is a preferential recovery of the genome containing two active ori elements (37% of progeny) over that containing three active elements (20%). This unexpected result, suggesting that active ori elements do not influence transmission of respiratory-competent genomes, is interpreted to reflect a preferential conversion of the delta 5.0 genome to the wild type (41% of progeny). Supporting evidence for conversion over biased transmission is shown by preferential recovery of a nonparental genome in the progeny of a heterozygous cross in which both parental molecules can be identified by size polymorphisms.


1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 6419-6432
Author(s):  
C C Chiang ◽  
J C Kennell ◽  
L A Wanner ◽  
A M Lambowitz

The Mauriceville and Varkud mitochondrial plasmids of Neurospora spp. are closely related, small circular DNAs that propagate via an RNA intermediate and reverse transcription. Although the plasmids ordinarily replicate autonomously, they can also integrate into mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), yielding defective mtDNAs that in some cases cause senescence. To investigate the integration mechanism, we analyzed four cases in which the Varkud plasmid integrated into the mitochondrial small rRNA gene, three in wild-type subcultures and one in a senescent mutant. Our analysis suggests that the integrations occurred by the plasmid reverse transcriptase template switching between the plasmid transcript and internal sequences in the mitochondrial small rRNA to yield hybrid cDNAs that circularized and recombined homologously with the mtDNA. The integrated plasmid sequences are transcribed, presumably from the mitochondrial small rRNA promoters, resulting in hybrid RNAs containing the 5' segment of the mitochondrial small rRNA linked head-to-tail to the full-length plasmid transcript. Analysis of additional senescent mutants revealed three cases in which the plasmid used the same mechanism to integrate at other locations in the mtDNA. In these cases, circular variant plasmids that had incorporated a mitochondrial tRNA or tRNA-like sequence by template switching integrated by homologous recombination at the site of the corresponding tRNA or tRNA-like sequence in mtDNA. This simple integration mechanism involving template switching to generate a hybrid cDNA that integrates homologously could have been used by primitive retroelements prior to the acquisition of a specialized integration machinery.


1983 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 1949-1957
Author(s):  
R Kelly ◽  
S L Phillips

A cDNA preparation, synthesized by using Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondrial RNA as template and oligodeoxythymidylic acid as primer, was found to specifically hybridize to the mitochondrial 21S rRNA by the following criteria: (i) it hybridizes only to the 21S RNA species in mitochondrial RNA and not to RNA from a [rho0] mutant, and (ii) it hybridizes to fragments in restriction digests of mitochondrial DNA that contain the 21S rRNA gene but not to nuclear DNA. This cDNA was used as a probe to demonstrate that a 2.6-fold decrease in the cellular level of the mitochondrial large rRNA is associated with glucose repression of mitochondrial function in S. cerevisiae. A corresponding decrease in the level of mitochondrial DNA was not observed.


1996 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
pp. 603-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Schilke ◽  
J Forster ◽  
J Davis ◽  
P James ◽  
W Walter ◽  
...  

SSH1, a newly identified member of the heat shock protein (hsp70) multigene family of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, encodes a protein localized to the mitochondrial matrix. Deletion of the SSH1 gene results in extremely slow growth at 23 degrees C or 30 degrees C, but nearly wild-type growth at 37 degrees C. The matrix of the mitochondria contains another hsp70, Ssc1, which is essential for growth and required for translocation of proteins into mitochondria. Unlike SSC1 mutants, an SSH1 mutant showed no detectable defects in import of several proteins from the cytosol to the matrix compared to wild type. Increased expression of Ssc1 partially suppressed the cold-sensitive growth defect of the SSH1 mutant, suggesting that when present in increased amounts, Ssc1 can at least partially carry out the normal functions of Ssh1. Spontaneous suppressors of the cold-sensitive phenotype of an SSH1 null mutant were obtained at a high frequency at 23 degrees C, and were all found to be respiration deficient. 15 of 16 suppressors that were analyzed lacked mitochondrial DNA, while the 16th had reduced amounts. We suggest that Ssh1 is required for normal mitochondrial DNA replication, and that disruption of this process in ssh1 cells results in a defect in mitochondrial function at low temperatures.


2000 ◽  
Vol 352 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kei-ichi SUGIYAMA ◽  
Atsuki KAWAMURA ◽  
Shingo IZAWA ◽  
Yoshiharu INOUE

Previously we reported that expression of GSH1 (γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase) and GSH2 (glutathione synthetase) of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was increased by heat-shock stress in a Yap1p-dependent fashion and consequently intracellular glutathione content was increased [Sugiyama, Izawa and Inoue (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 15535–15540]. In the present study, we discuss the physiological role of glutathione in the heat-shock stress response in this yeast. Both gsh1 and gsh2 mutants could acquire thermotolerance by mild heat-shock stress and induction of Hsp104p in both mutants was normal; however, mutant cells died faster by heat shock than their parental wild-type strain. After pretreatment at a sublethal temperature, the number of respiration-deficient mutants increased in a gsh1 mutant strain in the early stages of exposure to a lethal temperature, although this increase was partially suppressed by the addition of glutathione. These results lead us to suspect that an increase of glutathione synthesis during heat-shock stress is to protect mitochondrial DNA from oxidative damage. To investigate the correlation between mitochondrial DNA damage and glutathione, mitochondrial Mn-superoxide dismutase (the SOD2 gene product) was disrupted. As a result, the rate of generation of respiration-deficient mutants of a sod2∆ strain was higher than that of the isogenic wild-type strain and treatment of the sod2∆ mutant with buthionine sulphoximine, an inhibitor of glutathione synthesis, inhibited cell growth. These results suggest that glutathione synthesis is induced by heat shock to protect the mitochondrial DNA from oxidative damage that may lead to cell death.


1997 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 545-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
M S Spector ◽  
A Raff ◽  
H DeSilva ◽  
K Lee ◽  
M A Osley

The HIR/HPC (histone regulation/histone periodic control) negative regulators play important roles in the transcription of six of the eight core histone genes during the Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell cycle. The phenotypes of hir1 and hir2 mutants suggested that the wild-type HIR1 and HIR2 genes encode transcriptional repressors that function in the absence of direct DNA binding. When Hir1p and Hir2p were artificially tethered to yeast promoters, each protein repressed transcription, suggesting that they represent a new class of transcriptional corepressors. The two proteins might function as a complex in vivo: Hir2p required both Hir1p and another Hir protein, Hir3p, to repress transcription when it was tethered to an HTA1-lacZ reporter gene, and Hir1p and Hir2p could be coimmunoprecipitated from yeast cell extracts. Tethered Hir1p also directed the periodic transcription of the HTA1 gene and repressed HTA1 transcription in response to two cell cycle regulatory signals. Thus, it represents the first example of a transcriptional corepressor with a direct role in cell cycle-regulated transcription.


Genetics ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-452
Author(s):  
Reed B Wickner

ABSTRACT Strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae carrying a 1.4 × 106 dalton double-stranded (ds) RNA in virus-like particles (the killer plasmid or virus) secrete a toxin that is lethal to strains not carrying this plasmid (virus). The mak10 gene is one of 24 chromosomal genes (called pets, mak1, mak2,…) that are needed to maintain and replicate the killer plasmid. We report here isolation of spontaneous and induced mutants in which the killer plasmid is maintained and replicated in spite of a defect in the mak10 gene. The bypass (or suppressor) mutations in these strains are in the mitochondrial genome. Respiratory deficiency produced by various chromosomal pet mutations, by chloramphenicol, or by antimycin A, does not bypass the mak10-1 mutation. Several spontaneous mak10-1 killer strains have about 12-fold more of the killer plasmid ds RNA than do wild-type killers. Although the absence of mitochondrial DNA bypasses mak10-1, it does not bypass pets-1, mak1-1, mak3-1, mak4-1, mak5-1, mak6-1, mak7-1, or mak8-1.


1984 ◽  
Vol 218 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
G M Payne ◽  
J W Payne

gamma-Glutamyltransferase activity has been measured in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and shown to be associated mainly with the membrane fraction. A similar level of activity is found in a wild-type strain and in gap and gpp strains, the latter mutants being defective in the general amino acid and peptide permeases respectively. The activity is inhibited in whole cells by 6-diazo-5-oxo-L-norleucine (N2O-Nle), azaserine and serine-borate complex; this inactivation seemingly acts from without, for it is similar in (i) control and dicyclohexylcarbodi-imide-treated cells and in (ii) the wild-type and a gap mutant, a treatment and a mutation that it has been shown prevents uptake of the inhibitors. Thus a major portion of the gamma-glutamyltransferase activity appears to exist in a membrane-bound form that is orientated with its gamma-glutamyl-binding site facing the outside. Yeast cells in which gamma-glutamyltransferase has been inactivated by N2O-Nle show no significant change in their rates of uptake of a variety of amino acids, dipeptides and gamma-glutamyl-amino acids. The results preclude a major, direct role for gamma-glutamyltransferase in the transport of these substrates.


Genetics ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 148 (4) ◽  
pp. 1763-1776
Author(s):  
Olga Zelenaya-Troitskaya ◽  
Scott M Newman ◽  
Koji Okamoto ◽  
Philip S Perlman ◽  
Ronald A Butow

Abstract Previous studies have established that the mitochondrial high mobility group (HMG) protein, Abf2p, of Saccharomyces cerevisiae influences the stability of wild-type (ρ+) mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and plays an important role in mtDNA organization. Here we report new functions for Abf2p in mtDNA transactions. We find that in homozygous Δabf2 crosses, the pattern of sorting of mtDNA and mitochondrial matrix protein is altered, and mtDNA recombination is suppressed relative to homozygous ABF2 crosses. Although Abf 2p is known to be required for the maintenance of mtDNA in ρ+ cells growing on rich dextrose medium, we find that it is not required for the maintenance of mtDNA in ρ− cells grown on the same medium. The content of both ρ+ and ρ− mtDNAs is increased in cells by 50–150% by moderate (two- to threefold) increases in the ABF2 copy number, suggesting that Abf2p plays a role in mtDNA copy control. Overproduction of Abf 2p by ≥10-fold from an ABF2 gene placed under control of the GAL1 promoter, however, leads to a rapid loss of ρ+ mtDNA and a quantitative conversion of ρ+ cells to petites within two to four generations after a shift of the culture from glucose to galactose medium. Overexpression of Abf2p in ρ− cells also leads to a loss of mtDNA, but at a slower rate than was observed for ρ+ cells. The mtDNA instability phenotype is related to the DNA-binding properties of Abf 2p because a mutant Abf 2p that contains mutations in residues of both HMG box domains known to affect DNA binding in vitro, and that binds poorly to mtDNA in vivo, complements Δabf2 cells only weakly and greatly lessens the effect of overproduction on mtDNA instability. In vivo binding was assessed by colocalization to mtDNA of fusions between mutant or wild-type Abf 2p and green fluorescent protein. These findings are discussed in the context of a model relating mtDNA copy number control and stability to mtDNA recombination.


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