Assembly of mitochondria in yeast. Complementation of mitochondrial and cytosolic products in a temporal sequence in vitro.

1. Sequential transfer of derepressing yeast spheroplasts from a medium containing chloramphenicol to one containing cycloheximide or vice versa, shows that the cytosolically and mitochondrially synthesized products are synthesized independent of each other and accumulate in the absence of their counterparts. 2. This has been demonstrated by immunoprecipitation using specific antisera for cytochrome oxidase and ATPase enzymes. 3. The independently accumulated products have been shown to complement each other for the expression of enzyme activity, upon mixing in vitro. 4. By varying the time of treatment with cycloheximide, thereby allowing the mitochondrial protein synthesis to proceed to different extent, a time sequence in the appearance of the mitochondrially synthesized products is demonstrated.