On the formation of rho - petites in yeast. III. Effects of temperature on transmission and recombination of mitochondrial markers and on rho - cell formation in temperature sensitive mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The rho-factor stability is shown to be affected by four conditional mutations, tsm-8 (mitochondrial), tsp-20, tsp-25 and tsp-30 (nuclear). Growth of mutant cells at high temperature (35 degrees C) results in the rapid production of rho - cells and concomittantly in the decrease of the ability to transmit mitochondrial genetic information to the rho + progeny of crosses. Kinetics of rho - cell formation during growth at 35 degrees C have been compared with variations in transmission and recombination of mitochondrial markers in crosses. In all cases the transmission of mitochondrial markers of the ts-parent decreases as the number of cell generations increases. The frequencies of recombinants between mitochondrial markers either increase or decrease depending on the markers considered and the alleles of the omega-locus involved in the crosses. The results of all crosses performed have been compared with the predictions of the model for recombination and segregation of mitochondrial genes proposed by Dujon et al. (1974). This comparison indicates that the main result of high temperature treatment is a diminution of the input of mitochondrial information from the ts-parent into zygotes. Consequences of the induced variations of input follow the predictions of the model. The correlation found in ts-strains between the reduction of input in crosses and the formation of rho - cells is discussed in terms of molecular events occurring in mitDNA molecules during high temperature induction of rho + to rho - mutation.