Nuclear mutations conferring oligomycin resistance in Neurospora crassa

Mutants of Neurospora crassa have been isolated that are highly resistant to inhibition by oligomycin, an inhibitor of mitochondrial ATPase activity. Dixon plots (Dixon, M., and Webb, E.C. (1964) Enzymes, 2nd Ed, pp. 328-330, Academic Press, New York) of oligomycin inhibition curves of the parent strain and the resistant mutants are linear, indicating that oligomycin interacts at a single site within the ATPase complex. The Ki values obtained from the mutants vary from 150 to 900 times greater than the Ki obtained for the parent strain. The parent strain and the oligomycin-resistant mutants are also inhibited by bathophenanthroline, a lipophilic chelating agent that inhibits F1 ATPase activity. Dixon plots of bathophenanthroline inhibition curves are also linear and Ki values obtained are all approximately equal. Crosses of the oligomycin-resistant mutants to the oligomycin-sensitive parent strain show a mendelian segregation of the resistance characteristic. These data show that mutations leading to oligomycin resistance in Neurospora are due to alterations in nuclear genes.