Does mitochondrial DNA length influence the frequency of spontaneous petite mutants in yeasts?

Abstract

Results from the theory of random walks applied to the random excision hypothesis for production of petite mutants in yeast suggest that frequency of excision should increase as a linear function of mitochondrial DNA length (see appendix). For a series of petite positive yeasts we have determined the spontaneous petite frequency (ranging from about 0.003% to 9%) and length of mtDNA (ranging from about 19 Kbp to c. 108 Kbp) and found that, while the frequency of petite mutants does generally increase with mtDNA length, the relationship is far from linear. Although these results are inconclusive concerning the random excision hypothesis they do indicate that amongst related yeasts other factors have a greater influence than mtDNA length in determining the frequency of petite mutants.