Cytoplasmic DNA from petite colonies of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: a hypothesis on the nature of the mutation.

The density of the cytoplasmic DNA of two strains of "petite" mutants of yeast, obtained by treatment with acriflavin and with ultraviolet light, was examined in cesium chloride density-gradient centrifugation and in all cases appeared to be less than that of the wild type. A cytoplasmic respiratory-deficient strain, treated with additional acriflavin, can show a further shift of the position of the satellite band, always in the direction of reduction of density. Also, from the p(+) x p(-) cross, p(-) strains can be recovered in which the density of the satellite DNA is different from the density of the parent p(-) strain. This finding suggests the existence of recombination in cytoplasmic DNA moleciules.