Interspecies transplacement of mitochondria

Protoplasts of a respiration-deficient rho strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were incubated with mitochondria isolated from various respiration-competent yeast species under conditions enabling transplacement of mitochondria. Respiration-competent cybrids were selected by plating the protoplasts on agar media containing a non-fermentable energy source. The resulting cybrids contained nuclear DNA of the acceptor S. cerevisiae and mitochondrial DNA of the donor species, as detected by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of chromosomes and restriction analysis of mitochondrial DNA, respectively. Successful restoration of respiration in the S. cerevisiae mutant was achieved by transplacement of mitochondria isolated from the following Saccharomyces species: S. bayanus, S. capensis, S. delbruckii, S. exiguus, S. italicus and S. oviformis.