Cloning of yeast gene for trichodermin resistance and ribosomal protein L3.

Yeast cells sensitive to the eukaryotic protein synthesis inhibitor trichodermin have been transformed with autonomously replicating recombinant plasmids carrying DNA fragments of the genome of a trichodermin-resistant yeast strain. After selection for trichodermin-resistant cells, several transformants yielded a plasmid containing a 13.5-kilobase (kb) DNA fragment that encodes the trichodermin resistance gene, tcm1, and the gene for ribosomal protein L3, the largest of the yeast ribosomal proteins. Cells carrying this plasmid are resistant to trichodermin and to the related drug verrucarin A as well as to the unrelated drug anisomycin. This pattern of resistance is similar to that exhibited by strains carrying a chromosomal copy of tcm1. Moreover, polyribosomes prepared from transformed cells are resistant to trichodermin when tested in an in vitro protein synthesis assay. Subcloning of the 13.5-kb DNA fragment revealed that the gene for tcm1 and the gene for protein L3 are contained within a 3.2-kb segment. These results suggest that the gene for trichodermin resistance in yeast specifies ribosomal protein L3.