Cold-sensitive mutation in Neurospora crassa affecting the production of 17S ribosomal RNA from ribosomal precursor RNA.

The cold-sensitive mutant strain of Neurospora crassa, crib-1 (PJ30201) has a conditional defect in ribosome biosynthesis. At 10 °C this mutant underproduces the small (37S) ribosomal subunit. Experiments were done to study rRNA synthesis in crib-1 after a shift from the permissive (25 °C) to the nonpermissive temperature and vice versa. The results showed that the primary cold-sensitive defect in crib-1 is in the function, rather than the synthesis, of a molecule needed for the production of the 17S rRNA component of the 37S subunit. Pulse-labeling experiments showed that at 10 °C crib-1 synthesizes the 2.4-Mdal pre-rRNA molecule which contains the sequences for the 17S, 5.8S and 25S rRNA species, but that processing of this molecule is defective such that relatively few stable 17S rRNA molecules accumulate.