Mitochondrial biogenesis during fungal spore germination: respiratory cytochromes of dormant and germinating spores of Botryodiplodia.

The mitochondrial respiratory cytochrome contents of dormant and germinating conidia of Botryodiplodia theobromae were examined. Oxidized versus reduced difference spectra at 77 degrees K of whole mitochondria from physiologically mature germinated spores showed a typical a-band pattern for cytochromes c, b, and a, with absorption maxima at 549, 554 + 559, and 604 nm, respectively, whereas the difference spectrum of the counterpart mitochondrial fraction from dormant spores showed no cytochrome a bands. However, a fraction prepared from dormant spore mitochondria by detergent extraction and (NH4)2SO4 fractionation contained readily detectable quantities of cytochromes c and b (as shown by the a and Soret absorption bands), but it did not contain the a or Soret bands of cytochrome a observed in a counterpart preparation from germinated spores. The pyridine hemochromogen preparation from the dormant spore mitochondria contained no material that is spectroscopically characteristic of a-type heme and protoheme. These results suggest that cytochrome a is not present as a functional molecule in dormant spores. The first spectroscopically detectable cytochromes were observed in whole mitochondria at 210 min of spore germination, and the amount of each of the cytochromes increased with cell growth. A precursor of the heme porphyrin, delta-[4-14C]aminolevulinic acid, was first incorporated (at accelerating rates) into acid-insoluble spore material at 180 min of germination, which appears to be the approximate time of organization of new mitochondria in these spores.