ARTICLE

THE BIOGENESIS OF MITOCHONDRIA IN SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE

G. D. Clark-Walker ¹ and Anthony W. Linnane ¹

¹ From the Biochemistry Department, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

The effects of chloramphenicol on S. cerevisiae and on a cytoplasmic respiratory-deficient mutant derived from the same strain are compared. In the normal yeast, high concentrations of chloramphenicol in the growth medium completely inhibit the formation of cytochromes a, a₃, b, and c₁ and partially inhibit succinate dehydrogenase formation, whereas they do not affect cytochrome c synthesis. This has been correlated with the marked reduction of mitochondrial cristae formation in the presence of the drug. In glucose-repressed normal yeast, chloramphenicol has little effect on the formation of outer mitochondrial membrane, or on the synthesis of malate dehydrogenase and fumarase. However, both these enzymes, as well as the number of mitochondrial profiles, are markedly decreased when glucose de-repressed yeast is grown in the presence of chloramphenicol. The antibiotic did not appear to affect the cytoplasmic respiratory-deficient mutant. The results have been interpreted to indicate that chloramphenicol inhibits the protein-synthesizing system characteristic of the mitochondria. Since the drug does not prevent the formation of cytochrome c, of several readily solubilized mitochondrial enzymes, or of outer mitochondrial membrane, it is suggested that these are synthesized by nonmitochondrial systems.

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