Mutations releasing mitochondrial biogenesis from glucose repression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Mutants which exhibit a constitutive glucose-insensitive expression of respiratory activity were selected by use of a triphenyltetrazolium staining technique. These mutants lack carbon catabolite repression, as was demonstrated by measuring cytochromes, the activity of succinate cytochrome c reduction, total cellular respiration, mitochondrial protein, and DNA synthesis. High growth rates of mutant cells in glucose medium and normal fermentative CO2 production exclude the possibility that this carbon catabolite insensitivity of mitochondrial functions is merely due to a decreased utilization of glucose. Accordingly, the activities of the two cytoplasmic enzymes measured, maltase and malate synthase, were glucose repressible to the same extent in the mutants as in the wild type. The mutations are dominant and showed nuclear inheritance. The results are discussed in terms of carbon catabolite-regulated expression of genes involved in the biogenesis of mitochondria.