Petite strains in Saccharomyces exhibit enhanced spontaneous mutation rates of nuclear genes regardless of whether they are cytoplasmically or nuclearly inherited, or whether or not the cytoplasmic petite strains have mitochondrial DNA. In petite strains, the mutation rate for the nonsense allele lys1-1 is enhanced by a factor of 3-6 and for the missense allele his1-7 by a factor of 2 as compared with their grande counterparts. The reversion of a third allele, the putative frameshift mutation, hom3-10, is not enhanced in a petite background. The results indicate that the spontaneous mutation rate of an organism can be altered by indirect intracellular influences.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.