The allosuppressor gene SAL4 encodes a protein important for maintaining translational fidelity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Allosuppressor (sal) mutations enhance the efficiency of the yeast ochre suppressor SUQ5 and define five unlinked loci, SALT-SALS. A number of sal4 mutants were isolated and found to have pleiotropic, allele;specific phenotypes, including hypersensitivity in vivo to paromomycin and other antibiotics that stimulate translational errors in yeast. To examine further the nature of the SAL4 gene product, the wild type SAL4 gene was isolated by complementation of a conditional lethal allele sal4-2, and demonstrated to be a single copy gene encoding a single 1.6 kb transcript. Restriction mapping and DNA hybridisation analysis were used to demonstrate that the SAL4 gene is identical to the previously identified omnipotent suppressor gene SUP45 (SUPT). Our results implicate the SAL4 gene product as playing a major role in maintaining translational accuracy in yeast.