A NEW GENE AFFECTING THE EFFICIENCY OF MATING-TYPE INTERCONVERSIONS IN HOMOTHALLIC STRAINS OF SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE

Homothallic strains of Saccharomyes cerevisiae are able to switch efficiently from one mating genotype to another. From a single haploid spore arise both a and α mating type cells, which then self-mate to produce a colony consisting almost exclusively of nonmating a/α diploid cells. We have isolated a mutant homothallic strain that gives rise to colonies that show bisexual mating behavior. The mating reaction is always asymmetric, that is, in some colonies a mating is much stronger than α mating, while others show greater α than a mating.—This mating phenotype arises from the presence of three cell types in a colony: some a/α nonmating diploids and an unequal number of a and α haploid cells. The predominant haploid type is that of the original cell that gives rise to the colony. This mixture of cell types arises from a very reduced efficiency of homothallic mating-type interconversions in the mutant strain.—The mutation, designated switch (swi1-1), behaves as a single genetic locus. The mutation is centromere linked, but not linked to the mating type locus or to any of the homothallism genes: HO, HM  a and HMα. The switch mutation does not affect the efficiency of self-mating, but rather directly affects the frequency of interconversion of mating types.