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Mitochondria continually fuse and divide to dynamically adapt to changes in metabolism and stress. Mitochondrial dynamics are also required for mitochondrial DNA (mt DNA) integrity; however, the underlying reason is not known. In this study, we examined the link between mitochondrial fusion and mt DNA maintenance in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, which cannot survive without mt DNA, by screening for suppressors of the lethality induced by loss of the dynamin-related large GTPase Msp1p. Our findings reveal that inactivation of Msp1p induces a ROS-dependent nuclear mutator phenotype that affects mitochondrial fission genes involved in suppressing mitochondrial fragmentation and mt DNA depletion. This indicates that mitochondrial fusion is crucial for maintaining the integrity of both mitochondrial and nuclear genetic information. Furthermore, our study suggests that the primary roles of Msp1p are to organize mitochondrial membranes, thus making them competent for fusion, and maintain the integrity of mt DNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae the nicotinic acid moiety of NAD+ can be synthesized from tryptophan using the kynurenine pathway or incorporated directly using nicotinate phosphoribosyl transferase (NPT1). We have identified the genes that encode the enzymes of the kynurenine pathway and for BNA5 (YLR231c) and BNA6 (YFR047c) confirmed that they encode kynureninase and quinolinate phosphoribosyl transferase respectively. We show that deletion of genes encoding kynurenine pathway enzymes are co-lethal with the Δnpt1, demonstrating that no other pathway for the synthesis of nicotinic acid exists in S. cerevisiae. Also, we show that under anaerobic conditions S. cerevisiae is a nicotinic acid auxotroph. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]