title: Complete absence of mitochondrial DNA in the petite-negative yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe leads to resistance towards the alkaloid lycorine.
abstract: The petite-positive yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae can be efficiently and completely converted to respiratory-deficient cytoplasmic petite mutants by intercalating drugs. Rho0 petites from Schizosaccharomyces pombe could only be obtained in strains carrying a nuclear mutation. In this paper we report the efficient isolation of rho0 mutants in a Sch. pombe strain containing a mitochondrial mutator mutation. We also show that the alkaloid lycorine is able to differentiate between cells containing defective mitochondrial DNA (mit-) and those lacking mitochondrial DNA completely (rho0). Rho0 cells are resistant to the alkaloid whereas mit- and wild-type cells show the same sensitivity.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Internazionale di Genetica e Biofisica, Napoli, Italy.
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Massardo
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Manna
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schäfer
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Del Giudice
mesh_terms: D047151:Amaryllidaceae Alkaloids; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics*; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation; D010617:Phenanthridines / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017384:Sequence Deletion
chemical_list: D047151:Amaryllidaceae Alkaloids; D004271:DNA, Fungal; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D010617:Phenanthridines; C015330:lycorine