Genetic evidence for a polycistronic unit of transcription in the complex locus ‘14’ inPodospora anserinaII. Genetic analysis of informational suppressors

Abstract

SUMMARYForty-one suppressors obtained after NG and EMS mutagenesis of two ‘polar’ mutants of segment ‘29’ inPodospora anserinawere genetically analysed. Three classes of suppressor could be distinguished on spectrum pattern criteria. One representative suppressor of each class was demonstrated to be non-gene specific. The class I suppressor was dominant and only suppressed polar mutants in segment ‘29’ and non-ICR-induced ones in genes where polarity cannot be determined. Class II and III suppressors were partially dominant and they suppressed polar, non-polar and even ICR-induced mutants. The difference between classes II and III seems to be only quantitative. According to whether class II and III suppressors are considered strongly or weakly allele-specific, two hypotheses are considered. First,tRNAs could be involved in all three classes of suppression: class I would be nonsense-specific and classes II and III would be nonsense-missense suppressors. Secondly,tRNA could be involved only in class I suppression, while ribosomal ambiguity could be responsible for class II and III suppression.