Isolation and characterization of cold-sensitive mutations at the benA, beta-tubulin, locus of Aspergillus nidulans.

We have isolated large numbers of conditionally lethal beta-tubulin mutations to provide raw material for analyzing the structure and function of beta tubulin and of microtubules. We have isolated such mutations as intragenic suppressors of benA33, a heat-sensitive (hs-) beta-tubulin mutation of Aspergillus nidulans. Among over 2,600 revertants isolated, 126 were cold-sensitive (cs-). In 41 of 78 cs- revertants analyzed, cold sensitivity and reversion from hs- to hs+ were due to mutations linked to benA33. In three cases reversion was due to mutations closely linked to benA33 but cold sensitivity was due to a coincidental mutation unlinked to benA33. In the remaining 34 cases reversion was due to mutations unlinked to benA33. Thirty-three of the revertants in which cold sensitivity and reversion were linked to benA33 were sufficiently cold-sensitive to allow us to select for rare recombinants between benA33 and putative suppressors in a revertant X wild-type (wt) cross. We found only one recombinant among 1,000 or more viable progeny from crosses of each of these revertants with a wt strain. Reversion is thus due to a back mutation or very closely linked suppressor in each case. We have analyzed 17 of these 33 revertants with greater precision and have found that, in each case, reversion is due to a suppressor mutation that maps to the right of benA33. The recombination frequencies between benA33 and the suppressors are very low (less than 1.2 X 10(-4)) in all cases.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)