Map location of transcripts from Torulopsis glabrata mitochondrial DNA

Abstract

Unique transcripts for cytochrome b, ATPase subunits 6 and 9, cytochrome oxidase subunits 2 and 3 and S and L rRNA have been mapped by the S1 protection technique to the circular 19-kbp mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the yeast Torulopsis glabrata. In contrast, a number of transcripts have been detected for the mosaic cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 gene with the largest being approximately 5000 nucleotides and the mature message having a length of 1760 nucleotides. Despite the presence in T. glabrata mtDNA of a sequence that hybridizes to the variant 1 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mtDNA we have not detected a transcript of this region. Neither have we detected co-transcripts of adjacent genes in RNA from either glucose-repressed or derepressed cells. However, by comparison of RNA species from the two growth conditions, we have found that the ATPase subunit 6 transcript is lower in amount relative to other species in preparations from glucose-repressed cells. This information, together with the observation of separate transcripts and the knowledge that there are several species of mitochondrial RNA which can be capped by the guanylyl transferase catalysed addition of GMP, suggests that each of the genes investigated in the present study is separately transcribed.