Temperature sensitive pet mutants in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae that lose mitochondrial RNA.

This is a description of a new class of temperature sensitive pet mutants in Saccharomyces cereviase that lose all or part of their mitochondrial RNA at the restrictive temperature. These mutants fall into 8 different complementation groups, mna1 to mna8, and 2 different classes based on their phenotype. Class I mutations, mna1-1 through mna5-1, cause complete or partial loss of mitochondrial RNA at the restrictive temperature. The mutation, mna1-1, is especially interesting since it causes a loss of both mitochondrial DNA and RNA when the mutant is grown on a fermentable carbon source at the restrictive temperature. However, when this mutant is grown at the permissive temperature on a non-fermentable carbon source then shifted to the restrictive temperature, only the mitochondrial RNA is lost. This indicates that the primary cause for the pet phenotype is due to the loss of mitochondrial RNA and not DNA. Class II mutations, mna6-1 through mna8-1, cause complete loss of the 14S rRNA after growth at the restrictive temperature in a fermentable carbon source. This loss appears to be specific for the 14S rRNA, since all other transcripts probed by Northern analysis are normal.