The Influence of the Recombination System on the Protoplast Fusion of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. D. Iserentant and K. Van de Spiegle, Centrum voor Biotechnologisch Onderzoek Boerenbond/Artois, Vaartstraat 94, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. J. Am. Soc. Brew. Chem. 46:0061, 1988.

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 rem 1-2 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.

Keywords: Protoplast fusion, Recombination, rad52-1 mutation, rem 1-2 mutation