Summary
The fluctuation assay of Luria and Delbrück was adapted for the exact determination of mating-type interconversion rates of semi-sterile heterothallic strains of Saccharomyces cereviae. These rates varied between 10−7 and 10−6, depending on the individual strain, and were enhanced in a dose-dependent manner for cells growing in the presence of increasing concentrations of sodium butyrate. Under our experimental conditions, the distribution of alpha cells over populations of a(ste2) cells corresponded to a Poissonian distribution (within sample errors); that over populations of a(ste14)-cells did not differ significantly from the distribution calculated by Lea and Coulsen.
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Klein, F., Wintersberger, U. Determination of mating-type conversion rates of heterothallic Saccharomyces cerevisiae with the fluctuation assay. Curr Genet 14, 355–362 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00419993
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00419993