0000000000313989

AUTHOR

Domenica Rita Massardo

Interactions between the yeast mitochondrial and nuclear genomes: isogenic suppressive and hypersuppressive petites differ in their resistance to the alkaloid lycorine

In a previous paper we have shown that the alkaloid lycorine inhibits growth of rho+, mit- and rho-, strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, whereas strains devoid of mitochondrial DNA (rho degrees) are resistant to more than 200 micrograms/ml of the alkaloid. In this report we show that hypersuppressive petites are almost as resistant as rho degrees mutants, whereas isogenic rho- petites, which have retained longer segments of the genome, are sensitive to the drug.

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The mitochondrial genome of Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Stimulation of intra-chromosomal recombination in Escherichia coli by the gene product of the first cox1 intron.

The open reading frame of the first intron of the mitochondrial cox1 gene (cox1I1) was expressed in Escherichia coli. The putative intron-encoded protein stimulated the formation of intra-chromosomal lac +-recombinants about threefold. No stimulation was found when the reading frame was inserted in the opposite direction, or when it was interrupted by a deletion. The intronic open reading frame did not complement recA − or recB − mutants of E. coli. In S. pombe, elimination of this intron did not abolish homologous recombination in mitochondria. A possible role of the recombinase activity in yeast mitochondria will be discussed.

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The Mu1 transposable element of maize contains two promoter signals recognized by the Escherichia coli RNA polymerase.

The galactokinase (GalK) expression plasmid vector system pKO-1 has been used to screen for promoter elements in the maize transposable element Mu1 that function in Escherichia coli. Two transcriptional start points, named S1 and S2, were identified, which are located in the two direct repeats of the transposable element. This paper demonstrates that sequence elements exist in a plant transposable element which function as prokaryotic promotors.

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