Loss of the mitochondrial nucleoid protein, Abf2p, destabilizes repetitive DNA in the yeast mitochondrial genome.

Loss of Abf2p, an abundant mitochondrial nucleoid-associated protein, results in increased mitochondrial frameshifts and direct-repeat mediated deletions but has no effect on the rate of mitochondrial point mutations. The instability of repeated sequences in this strain may be linked to the loss of mitochondrial DNA in abf2-Delta strains.