Alterations of the alpha or beta subunits of the mitochondrial ATPase in yeast mutants.

Among 979 non-glycerol growers of the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, 40 strains were found to be deficient in the mitochondrial ATPase activity. Three of them exhibited an alteration in either the alpha or beta subunits of the F1ATPase. The alpha subunit was not immunodetected in the A23/13 mutant. The beta subunit was not immuno-detected in the B59/1 mutant. The existence of these two mutants shows that the alpha and beta subunits can be present independently of each other in the inner mitochondrial membrane. The beta subunit of the mutant F25/28 had a slower electrophoretic mobility than that of the wild-type beta subunit. This phenotype indicates abnormal processing or specific modification of the beta subunit. All mutants showed reduced activities of the NADH-cytochrome c reductase and of the cytochrome oxidase and a decreased synthesis of cytochrome aa3 and cytochrome b. This pleiotropic phenotype appears to result from specific modifications in the mitochondrial protein synthesis. The mitochondrial synthesis of four polypeptides (three cytochrome oxidase and one cytochrome b subunits) was markedly decreased or absent while three new polypeptides (Mr = 54000, 20000 and 15000) were detected in all the mutants analysed. This observation suggests that a functional F1ATPase is necessary for the correct synthesis and/or assembly of the mitochondrially made components of the cytochrome oxidase and cytochrome b complexes.