Homology and non-homology at the yeast mating type locus

Four mutations of the alpha mating type locus of Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been analysed to determine their relationship to the a mating type locus. Mat alpha+ recombinations are produced by mat alpha 2-/MAT but not by mat alpha 1-/MATa diploids. MAT alpha and MATa thus contain regions of homology (coding for at least part of MAT alpha 2) and regions of non-homology (coding for at least part of MAT alpha 1)-the genetic determinant for cell type is larger than the non-homologous sequence seen by DNA-DNA heteroduplexes and genetic analysis. The segment transposed in mating type interconversion includes both types of sequence.