Mitochondrial transcription complex from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

A DNA protein complex has been isolated from the mitochondria of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The complex transcribes RNA complementary to mtDNA in a nonrandom manner. The RNA polymerase activity contained in the transcription complex is not dependent on the addition of exogenous template. The activity is rendered template-dependent by autolysis and can be further purified by heparin-Sepharose 4B chromatography. The activity is inhibited by heparin, Mn2+, and increasing ionic strength. The activity requires Mg2+ and ribonucleotides. The preferred template for the template dependent activity is poly[d(AT)]. The majority of the RNA synthesized by the transcription complex from endogenous DNA is complementary to the DNA strands directing the synthesis of the large and small ribosomal RNA. In yeast the 21 S and 14S rRNA genes are widely separated, therefore the transcription of these two regions but not of the intervening regions by the transcription complex suggests the existence of at least two transcriptional promoters on the yeast mitochondrial genome.