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A yeast strain with a point mutation in the nuclear gene for the core subunit of mitochondrial RNA polymerase was used to isolate new extragenic suppressors. Spontaneously occurring phenotypical revertants were analysed by crosses with the wild-type and tetrad dissection. One of the new nuclear suppressor mutants was characterized by temperature-sensitive growth on non-fermentable carbon sources. This mutant was transformed with a genomic yeast library. Two independent types of DNA clones were isolated which both complemented the temperature-sensitive defect. Subcloning and DNA sequencing identified two novel yeast genes which code for proteins with the characteristic features of transcription factors. Both factors exhibit highly structured protein domains consisting of runs and clusters of asparagine and glutamine residues. One of the proteins contains in addition zinc-finger domains of the C2H2-type. Therefore the genes are proposed to be named AZF1 (asparagine-rich zinc-finger protein) and PGD1 (polyglutamine domain protein). Gene disruption of both reading frames has no detectable influence on the vegetative growth on complete glucose or glycerol media, indicating that the genes may act as high copy number suppressors of the mutant defect. Additional transformation experiments showed that AZF1 is also an efficient suppressor for the original defect in the core subunit of mitochondrial RNA polymerase.

The temperature-sensitive yeast mutant pet-ts798 is characterized by an altered mitochondrial transcription apparatus. The mutation has previously been shown to map in the RPO41 gene encoding the core enzyme of mitochondrial RNA polymerase. In the present study the rpo41/pet-ts798 allele was cloned and sequenced, demonstrating that the mutant phenotype is caused by a single amino acid change in a conserved region of the core polymerase. The nuclear gene MTF1, previously isolated as a high copy suppressor of mutant rpo41/pet-ts798, and its gene product were characterized in more detail. Import of a MTF1-COXIV fusion protein in vivo and also import studies with in vitro synthesized MTF1 precursors indicate that MTF1 is a mitochondrial protein and that no apparent cleavage occurs during its import into mitochondria. DNA-binding assays demonstrate that the MTF1 protein alone interacts with DNA in a non-specific manner. An antibody directed against specificity factor MTF1 was raised and used for immunological quantification experiments. The results indicate that suppression is mediated by an increased level of MTF1 protein in mitochondria of the rpo41/pet-ts798 mutant. Possible implications of this finding for the mechanism of suppression are discussed.

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