Yeast mutants resistant to basic fuchsin: a genetic approach to the integration of nuclear and mitochondrial information.

In yeast, basic fuchsin both inhibits mitochondrial functions and is a potent mutagen for the mitochondrial genome. A genetic analysis of two mutants resistant to the dye indicate that: (1) resistance is specified by a nuclear gene; (2) the onset of resistance in sensitive cells is controlled by the mitochondrial genome; and (3) sensitive mitochondrial structures can be carried over for many cell generations in the presence of a resistant nuclear genotype.