New mutations in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae affecting completion of “start”

Summary

Here we report the isolation of several new temperature-sensitive mutations which cause cells of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to arrest in the G1 period of the cell cycle. Four different selection schemes were employed. The cell division cycle (cdc) mutations define five new complementation groups. At non-permissive temperatures, strains bearing these new cdc mutations arrested in G1 within one cell division cycle. By order-of-function mapping, cells of each population were found to be arrested at “start”, the regulatory point in the G1 period of yeast. Mutations were grouped into two categories by the abilities of mutant strains to continue extensive macromolecular synthesis and to conjugate with cells of the opposite mating type. For strains with mutations in one category, shift to the non-permissive temperature caused an abrupt decrease in the rates of labelling of protein and RNA, and rendered cells unable to mate efficiently. For strains with mutations in the second category, cells continued to grow and mating ability was not significantly impaired.

Each selection scheme was also designed to isolate mutations which specifically affect the ability of cells to reinitiate the cell cycle from stationary phase. This was done to test the hypothesis that stationary phase cells are in a unique developmental state referred to as G0. No mutations specific for resumption of growth from stationary phase were isolated.