The exceptionally high rate of spontaneous mutations in the polymerase delta proofreading exonuclease-deficient Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain starved for adenine

Background Mutagenesis induced in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae by starvation for nutrilites is a well-documented phenomenon of an unknown mechanism. We have previously shown that the polymerase delta proofreading activity controls spontaneous mutagenesis in cells starved for histidine. To obtain further information, we compared the effect of adenine starvation on mutagenesis in wild-type cells and, in cells lacking the proofreading activity of polymerase delta (phenotype Exo-, mutation pol3-01).