The pell mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is deficient in cardiolipin and does not survive the disruption of the CHO1 gene encoding phosphatidylserine synthase

Abstract Cells of the pell mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were found to contain an extremely low content of cardiolipin, a decreased level of phosphatidylcholine and an increased level of phosphatidylinositol. Disruption of the PELL gene in cells containing a null mutation in the CHO1 gene was lethal. Despite its putative functional homology with CHO1 , the overexpression of the PELL gene in the chol null mutant did not restore the wild-type properties of the transformed cells and failed to stimulate the incorporation of l-[3-³H]serine into total lipids of the intact yeast cells.