DNA sequence analysis of the oli1 gene reveals amino acid changes in mitochondrial ATPase subunit 9 from oligomycin-resistant mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The nucleotide sequence of the oli1 gene encoding mitochondrial ATPase subunit 9 (76 amino acids) has been determined for five oligomycin-resistant mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Three of the mutations affect amino acids in the vicinity of the glutamic acid residue 59 at which dicylohexyl carbodiimide binds. Two other mutations lead to substitution of amino acid 23, which would lie very close to residue 59 in the folded hairpin conformation that this protein is thought to adopt in the inner mitochondrial membrane. The apposition of residues 23 and those adjacent to residue 59, lying respectively in the two hydrophobic membrane-spanning arms of subunit 9, is considered to constitute an oligomycin-binding domain. By consideration of the amino acid substitutions in those mutants cross-resistant to venturicidin, a domain of resistance for venturicidin is defined to lie within the oligomycin-binding domain, also centered on residues 23 and 59. These data also clarify the genetic recombination behaviour of alleles previously defined to form part of the oli3 locus (mutants characterized by resistance to both oligomycin and venturicidin) together with alleles defined to form part of the oli1 locus (mutants not cross-resistant to venturicidin). The oli1 and oli3 loci can now be seen to form two overlapping extended groups within the oli1 gene, with sequenced oli3 mutations being as far apart as 125 nucleotides within the subunit 9 coding region of 231 nucleotides.