Two yeast nuclear genes, CBS1 and CBS2, are required for translation of mitochondrial transcripts bearing the 5'-untranslated COB leader.

Mutations in one of the yeast nuclear genes CBS1 or CBS2 both prevent the excision of the maturase-coding introns bI2, bI3 and bI4 from the mitochondrial COB precursor transcript. Mutant strain MK2 (cbs1-1) has recently been reported to be primarily defective in the translation of COB transcripts, as it can be suppressed by a fusion of the COB structural gene with the 5' untranslated leader of the mitochondrial OLI1 gene (G. Rödel, A. Körte and F. Kaudewitz, Curr Genet 9: 641-648). Here I report that the effect of mutation cbs2-1, too, is suppressed by this gene rearrangement. CBS2 is the second nuclear gene identified which is involved in the translation of mitochondrial transcripts bearing the 5' untranslated COB leader. Gene specific translation control appears to be a major mode of regulation of mitochondrial gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.