A Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene essential for viability has been conserved in evolution.

ABSTRACT

To identify the gene coding for the endonuclease which processes the 3' end of mitochondrial (mt) tRNA transcripts in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, nuclear mutations able to complement a mt mutant (Ts932) defective for this process were isolated and analyzed. One of these mutants exhibited a growth defect both on respiratory and fermentable media. Complementation of this phenotype with a S. cerevisiae centrometric wild-type genomic library has allowed us to identify a new essential S. cerevisiae gene strongly conserved in various eukaryotic organisms.