[Rhodosporidium Banno: yeast phase inactivation by ultraviolet light and N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine].

The inactivation of stationary phase cells by ultraviolet light (UV) and N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) was examined in eight wild strains of Rhodotorula, six of which are the sporidial yeast phase of Rhodosporidium, a basidiomycetous fungus. It has been found that (1) the UV-resistance of Rhodosporidium and Rhodotorula yeasts is higher and the MNNG-resistance lower than the resistance of Candida and Hansenula yeasts, (2) the shape of the survival curves is sigmoid in the case of UV and two-phase exponential in the case of MNNG, (3) the mutagen sensitivities but not the inactivation kinetics of the strains are different, (4) the UV- and MNNG-sensitivities for each of the strains are correlated, (5) the relatively high resistance to UV cannot be due to the carotenoid pigments of the cells, (6) mutations to UV-sensitivity can be induced with a high rate, (7) the sigmoidal character of the UV survival curves were reduced or transformed to an exponential shape by the UVS-mutations.