An assessment of the ability of yeast cells to incorporate photolabile fatty acids into their membrane phospholipids in vivo.

The photolabile fatty acids 12-azidooleic, 12-(4-azido-2-nitrophenoxy)oleic, 12-azidolauric and 12-(4-azido-2-nitrophenoxy)lauric are readily taken up in vivo by an unsaturated fatty acid auxotroph of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A low level of the two lauric acid derivatives and none of the two oleic acid derivatives are incorporated into membrane phospholipids. Under certain conditions of growth in the presence of 12-(4-azido-2-nitrophenoxy)oleic acid, the nitrophenylazide group is metabolized to a product that lacks the photolabile azido group.