Characterization of chromate-sensitive and -tolerant mutants of Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Stable chromium(VI)-sensitive and -tolerant mutants were obtained by induced mutagenesis of Schizosaccharomyces pombe lysine and leucine auxotrophic heterothallic strains 6chr+ and 9chr+. Eleven of them were selected for further studies. Fast transport of 51CrO4(2-) was detected in a representative sensitive mutant, chr-51S, while the tolerant mutant chr1-66T and the parental strain 6chr+ exhibited significantly lower 51CrO4(2-) uptake. The segregation of tetrads of three selected CrVI-tolerant mutants, chr1-66T, chr1-14T and chr2-04T, strongly indicated that tolerance was determined by single mutations. Random spore analysis proved that the mutations of chr1-66T and chr1-14T were allelic and the mutation of mutant chr2-04T was not allelic with the mutation of chr1-66T. Recombinants carrying the ura4D18 selective marker were created for transformation experiments. Two of them (chr1-661T and chr2-046T) can be used to clone and identify the genes responsible for their CrVI tolerance phenotype.