Mating Type Linked Mutations Which Disrupt the Uniparental Transmission of Chloroplast Genes in Chlamydomonas

Nicholas W. Gillham ¹, John E. Boynton ², Anita M. Johnson ², and Bryce D. Burkhart ²

¹ Department of Zoology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27706
² Department of Botany, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27706

In Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, chloroplast genomes are normally transmitted by the mating type plus (mt⁺) parent and mitochondrial genomes by the mating type minus (mt^- ) parent. In this paper we describe three new nuclear mutations, designated mat-3-1 to -3, which are tightly linked to the mt ⁺ allele and permit high transmission of chloroplast genomes from the mt^- parent, but have no effect on transmission of mitochondrial genomes. We also show that mat-1, reported by others to be a nuclear mutation linked to mt^- which promotes transmission of chloroplast genomes by the mt^- parent, is probably a vegetative diploid since it contains both mt⁺ and mt^- alleles. Vegetative diploids behave as if they are mt^- with respect to mating, but posses a level of chloroplast gene transmission intermediate between that of haploid mt^- and mt⁺ stocks.

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