Cell-cycle mutations among the collection of Saccharomyces cerevisiae dna mutants.

The temperature-sensitive dna mutants of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Dumas et al. (1982) Mol. Gen. Genet. 187, 42-46) are more inhibited in DNA synthesis than in protein synthesis. These properties are also characteristic of many yeast mutations that inhibit progress through the cell cycle. Therefore we surveyed the collection of dna mutants for cell-cycle mutations. By genetic complementation we found that dna1 = cdc22, dna6 = cdc34, dna19 = cdc36, and dna39 = dbf3. Furthermore, by direct gene cloning we found that the dna26 mutation is allelic to prt1 mutations, which are known to exert primary inhibition on protein synthesis. This protein-synthesis mutation exerts a dna phenotype due to cell-cycle inhibition: prt1 mutations can block the regulatory step of the cell cycle while allowing significant amounts of protein synthesis to continue. Our non-exhaustive screening suggests that the dna mutants may house other mutations that affect the yeast cell cycle.