Disruption of QCR7, the gene encoding the 14-kDa subunit of ubiquinol-cytochrome-c oxidoreductase of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, results in an inactive enzyme which lacks holocytochrome b and has severely reduced levels of apo-cytochrome b, the Rieske Fe-S protein and the 11-kDa subunit [Schoppink, P. J., Berden, J. Eul: J. Biochem. 181, An episomal system was developed to study the effect on complex I11 of transformation of in vitro mutagenised QCR7 genes to a QCR7' mutant. Transformation of a gene ( T N T l ) in which the 12 C-terminal residues are replaced by 3 amino acids encoded by an oligonucleotide containing a stop codon in all three reading frames (STOP-oligonucleotide), only leads to partial complementation of the respiratory capacity of the yeast strain. The amounts of apo-cytochrome 6 , the Rieske Fe-S protein and the 11 -kDa subunit are reduced and enzymic activity, together with the amount of holo-cytochrome b, is lowered to about 40% of that of the wild type, indicating a normal turnover number of the mutant enzyme.Transformation of the QCR7" mutant with another gene (TNT2) encoding the first 96 residues of the 14-kDa subunit fused to 9 amino acids encoded by the STOP-oligonucleotide, leads to a phenotype almost indistinguishable from that of the QCR7" mutant.The role of the charged C-terminus of the 14-kDa (and the 11-kDa) subunit in the assembly of a functional complex 111 is discussed.Ubiquinol-cytochrome-c oxidoreductase (complex I11 or the be, complex) is an oligomeric respiratory-chain enzyme, which invariably consists of at least three subunits: cytochrome b, cytochrome c, and the Rieske Fe-S subunit. These subunits, which carry the prosthetic groups, are functionally well characterised and have been shown to be essential for the activity of the enzyme. Fully active three-subunit be, complexes can be isolated from bacteria such as Paracoccus denitrficans and Rhodospirillum rubrum [1, 21. All known eukaryotic bc, complexes contain additional subunits, implying a more complicated situation in these cases, but in spite of a great deal of experimental effort the precise physiological role of these extra subunits remains enigmatic ( [ 3 , 41 and references therein). The bc, complex of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae contains six or seven additional subunits which are named, in order of descending molecular mass the 44-, 40-(also called core I and core I1 subunits), 17-,