Induction by manganese of mitochondrial antibiotic resistance mutations in yeast

Summary Manganese added to the growth medium of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to a final concentration of 4–8 mM induces not only mitochondrial respiratory-deficient mutations (Fig. 1), but also mitochondrial mutations to chloramphenicol- and erythromycin-resistance (Fig. 1, Tables 1–3). This is the first mutagen shown to be capable of inducing mitochondrial antibiotic resistance mutations in yeast. It is assumed that manganese induces mutations through its interaction with mitochondrial DNA polymerase.This work was supported by the Polish Acadmy of Sciences under the project 0.9.3.1.