Mitochondrial genetics

Summary Cytoplasmic petite mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae carrying the gene conferring the resistance to chloramphenicol on one hand and the gene conferring the resistance to erythromycin on the other, have been crossed with each other. The two types of petites differed in the buoyant densities of their mitochondrial DNA. A novel type of evidence has been adduced, that the two genes are indeed located on mitochondrial DNA. Diploid petite recombinants were found, carrying both genes and containing not a mixture of the two parental DNAs but a new species of mitochondrial DNA of intermediate buoyant density. Recombination of mitochondrial genes involves therefore breakage and reunion of DNA molecules. New suppressiveness, different from the two parental ones, can result from the recombination of mitochondrial DNA. Recombination between petite mutants implies that the mitochondrial recombination enzymes have to be synthesized on cytosol ribosomes.