Specific effect of unsaturated fatty acid depletion on mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation in [formula omitted

Abstract

A mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae which cannot synthesise unsaturated fatty acid (UFA) was used to investigate the role of UFA in yeast metabolism. UFA depleted cells contained cytochromes and respired at normal rates, but could not grow on non-fermentable substrate, and their growth on glucose was restricted to that which could be supported by fermentation alone. Isolated mitochondria lacked respiratory control and had negligible phosphorylation. Thus UFA depletion leads to the specific loss of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation by S. cerevisiae both in vivo and in vitro .