Dihydrouridine-deficient tRNAs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

A mutation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, designated mia, is responsible for the production of isoaccepting tRNA molecules with reduced extents of nucleoside modifications. The mia isoacceptors of tRNAPhe and one of the mutant isoacceptors of tRNATyr were highly purified for nucleoside composition analyses. The data indicate that the mutant isoacceptors are lacking some of the dihydrouridine moieties. This is consistent with our previous hypothesis that the mutant isoacceptors were accumulated due to a defect in a modification process [Lo, R.Y.C. and Bell, J.B. (1981) Current Genetics 3, 73-82). Data from in vitro poly-U translation experiments also support the previous results, suggesting in vivo biological activity of these mutant tRNAs.