Extreme chemical mutagen sensitivity of respiratory adaptation in yeast

The respiratory adaptation process (i.e. essentially mitochondrial biogenesis) in the cells of both wild-type Saccharomyces cerevisiae and strains sensitive to ultraviolet radiation (UV) undergoing transition from the anaerobic to the aerobic state (1-2 h aeration) could be arrested by a prior incubation for 15--30 min with several chemical mutagens and other DNA-acting chemicals at very low concentrations (10-7 to 10-6 M added to cells suspended at the density of 10(7) cells/ml). At the same concentrations, these chemicals also inhibited DNA and RNA biosynthesis in maturing mitochondria during respiratory adaptation. This provides suggestive evidence for the view that the inhibitory effect of the chemical mutagens on respiratory adaptation could be due to lesions introduced into the DNA of promitochondria in the anaerobic cells. The system of respiratory adaptation in S. cerevisiae cells could serve as a rapid test for ascertaining the potentiality of a chemical to affect cellular DNA and probably, in turn, its potentiality to be mutagenic.