A novel extranuclear mutant of Neurospora with a temperature-sensitive defect in mitochondrial protein synthesis and mitochondrial ATPase

[C93] is a novel, extranuclear mutant of Neurospora crassa which has a normal mitochondrial phenotype when grown at 25°, but which is deficient in cytochromes b and aa3 when grown at 37° (Pittenger and West 1979). In the present work, the phenotype of [C93] was characterized in greater detail. When [C93] is grown at 37°, the rate of mitochondrial protein synthesis is decreased to approximately 25% that of wild type; the ratio of mitochondrial small to large ribosomal subunits is decreased to 1:4 and mitochondrial small subunits are deficient in the mitochondrially-synthesized protein, S-5. The mitochondrial ribosome assembly defects in 37°-grown [C93] resemble those in chloramphenicol-treated wild-type cells and could merely be a consequence of the decreased rates of mitochondrial protein synthesis. Analysis of mitochondrial translation products by SDS gel electrophoresis suggests that 37°-grown [C93] is grossly deficient in the 19,000 Mr subunit of the oligomycin-sensitive ATPase relative to other mitochondrially-synthesized proteins. The ATPase defect was not found in other extranuclear or nuclear mutants deficient in mitochondrial protein synthesis. These data and additional evidence suggest that the primary defect in [C93] may be in the assembly of the ATPase complex. The possible connection between the ATPase defect and the deficiency of mitochondrial protein synthesis is discussed.