Effects of ploidy, growth conditions and the mitochondrial nucleoid-associated protein Ilv5p on the rate of mutation of mitochondrial DNA in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Microsatellites, or simple repetitive sequences, are abundant in eukaryotic genomes and in the mitochondrial genome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These sequences alter at rates significantly higher than non-repetitive sequences of comparable size. The stability of a mitochondrial microsatellite is nearly 100-fold greater in diploid yeast cells than in isogenic haploid cells. We were able to demonstrate that this effect is likely due to ploidy alone, rather than mating-type-specific gene expression. In addition, we demonstrated that amino acid starvation affects the organization of the mitochondrial DNA and its segregation into the bud. We also tested the effect of amino acid starvation on the copy number and the mutation rate of mitochondrial DNA in both haploid and diploid yeast cells. Yeast cells grown in rich medium have a lower mitochondrial DNA content than cells starved for amino acids and have a correspondingly higher mutation rate for both frameshift mutations and point mutations in mitochondrial DNA. These effects appear to be dependent on the mitochondrial nucleoid-associated protein Ilv5p.