The Influence of the Recombination System on the Protoplast Fusion of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

Abstract

In order to study the effect of the recombination system on protoplast fusion, intraspecific fusions were carried out using strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae showing a wild type recombination phenotype and S. cerevisiae rem 1–2 or rad52–1 mutants. Compared with the wild type X wild type fusion, the protoplast fusion frequencies decreased dramatically when a rem1–2 mutant was used as fusion partner and increased when a rad52–1 mutant was used. The rad52–1 mutants transformed with a plasmid carrying the intact RAD52 gene showed the same fusion frequency as the wild type strains. These results strongly suggest that recombination plays a negative role during protoplast fusion.

• Protoplast fusion
• Recombination
• rad52–1 mutation
• rem 1–2 mutation