MacAlpine D M, Kolesar J, Okamoto K, Butow R A, Perlman P S
Department of Molecular Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75390-9148, USA.
EMBO J. 2001 Apr 2;20(7):1807-17. doi: 10.1093/emboj/20.7.1807.
Wild-type yeast mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is inherited biparentally, whereas mtDNA of hypersuppressive petite mutants is inherited uniparentally in crosses to strains with wild-type mtDNA. Genomes of hypersuppressive petites contain a conserved ori sequence that includes a promoter, but it is unclear whether the ori confers a segregation or replication advantage. Fluorescent in situ hybridization analysis of wild-type and petite mtDNAs in crosses reveals no preferential segregation of hypersuppressive petite mtDNA to first zygotic buds. We identify single-stranded DNA circles and RNA-primed DNA replication intermediates in hypersuppressive petite mtDNA that are absent from non-hypersuppressive petites. Mutating the promoter blocks hypersuppressiveness in crosses to wild-type strains and eliminates the distinctive replication intermediates. We propose that promoter-dependent RNA-primed replication accounts for the uniparental inheritance of hypersuppressive petite mtDNA.
野生型酵母线粒体DNA(mtDNA)是双亲遗传的,而超抑制性小菌落突变体的mtDNA在与野生型mtDNA菌株杂交时是单亲遗传的。超抑制性小菌落的基因组包含一个保守的ori序列,其中包括一个启动子,但尚不清楚ori是否赋予了分离或复制优势。对杂交中的野生型和小菌落mtDNA进行荧光原位杂交分析,结果显示超抑制性小菌落mtDNA没有优先分离到第一个合子芽中。我们在超抑制性小菌落mtDNA中鉴定出单链DNA环和RNA引发的DNA复制中间体,而非超抑制性小菌落中则不存在这些物质。突变启动子会阻断与野生型菌株杂交时的超抑制性,并消除独特的复制中间体。我们提出,依赖启动子的RNA引发复制解释了超抑制性小菌落mtDNA的单亲遗传现象。