mim3 and nam3 omnipotent suppressor genes similarly affect the polypeptide composition of yeast mitoribosomes.

Yeast informational suppressors of mit- mutations coded for by nuclear (nam3-1, nam3-2) or by mitochondrial DNA (mim3-1) affect the mitoribosome. Nuclear mutations result in the appearance of an additional polypeptide called SI in the small mitoribosomal subunit. An identical polypeptide, not detected in the wild type 37S subunit, is present in crude preparations of mitoribosomes isolated from a mim3-1 suppressor carrying strain. Traces of the SI polypeptide may be found in highly purified small subunits from the mim3-1 strain. Therefore, mutations affecting either mitochondrial rRNA (mim3-1) or mitochondrial r-proteins (nam3-1, nam3-2) could be followed by similar changes in overall mitoribosome structure. This may explain the functional similarity of nuclear and mitochondrially coded suppressors.