Comparative analysis of the region of the mitochondrial genome containing the ATPase subunit 9 gene in the two related yeast species Saccharomyces douglasii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

We have determined the nucleotide sequence of a region of the mitochondrial genome of the yeast Saccharomyces douglasii which contains the ATPase subunit 9 gene and part of the intergenic sequences that surround it. The gene is 228 nucleotides long and encodes a polypeptide of 76 aa. A comparison of the coding sequence with that of S. cerevisiae reveals the presence of three silent transitions. A high level of similarity is also found between regions involved in the initiation of transcription and mRNA processing. More interestingly, a region of similarity situated outside the known regulatory regions has been identified. As the intergenic regions are generally highly divergent, the remarkable conservation of these non-coding sequences suggests that their structure may be relevant to the expression of this region of the mitochondrial DNA.