Genetics, Vol 130, 305-314, Copyright © 1992

INVESTIGATIONS

Genetic Interactions Among Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Mutations That Confer Resistance to Anti-Microtubule Herbicides

S. W. James and P. A. Lefebvre
Current address: Department of Pharmacology, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey--Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-5635.

We previously described two types of genetic interactions among recessive mutations in the APM1 and APM2 loci of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii that may reflect a physical association of the gene products or their involvement in a common structure/process: (1) allele-specific synthetic lethality, and (2) unlinked noncomplementation, or dominant enhancement. To further investigate these interactions, we isolated revertants in which the heat sensitivity caused by the apm2-1 mutation is lost. The heat-insensitive revertants were either fully or partially suppressed for the drug-resistance caused by the apm2-1 allele. In recombination tests the revertants behaved as if the suppressing mutation mapped within the APM2 locus; the partial suppressors of apm2-1 herbicide resistance failed to complement apm2-1, leading to the conclusion that they were likely to be intragenic pseudorevertants. The apm2-1 partial suppressor mutations reversed apm1(-)apm2-1 synthetic lethality in an allele-specific manner with respect both to apm1(-) alleles and apm2-1 suppressor mutations. Those apm1(-) apm2-1(rev) strains that regained viability also regained heat sensitivity characteristic of the original apm2-1 mutation, even though the apm2-1 suppressor strains were fully heat-insensitive. The Hs(+) phenotypes of apm2-1 partial suppressors were also reversed by treatment with the microtubule-stabilizing agent deuterium oxide (D(2)O). In addition to the above interactions, we observed interallelic complementation and phenotypic enhancement of temperature conditionality among apm1(-) alleles. Evidence of a role for the products of the two genes in microtubule-based processes was obtained from studying flagellar assembly in apm1(-) and apm2(-) mutants.

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