2005 Volume 70 Issue 3 Pages 287-293
When cells of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, grown to the stationary phase under anaerobic conditions and having distinctive giant mitochondrial nucleoids (mt-nucleoids), were transferred to aerobic conditions, dynamic changes in the mt-nucleoid morphology were revealed by DAPI-fluorescence microscopy. Within 1 h after transfer, the giant mt-nucleoids rapidly elongated into stringlike forms. Within 3 h after transfer, the mt-nucleoids dispersed as small particles in the cytoplasm. Within 6 h after transfer, the mt-nucleoids appeared as numerous smaller particles, just as aerobically grown cells did. The appearance of cells that had recovered respiration activity well corresponded to that of cells harboring large numbers of small mt-nucleoids. Mt-nucleoids were isolated from cells at 4 h and 7 h after transfer to aerobic culture. Chromatography on native DNA-cellulose of the DNA-binding proteins from the mt-nucleoids showed that 67-kDa and 52-kDa proteins were hardly detected in giant mt-nucleoids in anaerobically grown cells, but both proteins gradually appeared in the small mt-nucleoids during the transfer to aerobic conditions.
