Suppressors of ‘blue’ mutations in yeast

Abstract

SummaryMutants ofSaccharomyces cerevisiaewhose colonies were blue when grown on nutrient agar medium containing methylene blue reverted to wild-type with white-colony phenotype at high frequency. This reversion was controlled by nuclear gene suppressors in some mutants, and by cytoplasmic suppressors in others. Each of the latter suppressed several independetly segregating blue mutants. These suppressors could be divided into two classes: suppression by petite mutations which behaved as recessives, and suppression by a cytoplasmic factor in respiration-sufficient cells which behaved as dominant over wild-type but might also be a mutation ofrho. A relationship between blue mutation and temperature sensitivity was suggested.