ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF DOMINANT TUNICAMYCIN RESISTANCE MUTATIONS IN CHLAMYDOMONAS REINHARDTII (CHLOROPHYCEAE)

Seven independent mutations that confer resistance to the nucleoside antibiotic tunicamycin in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii were isolated in wild‐type diploid cells. Upon resolution to haploidy, all the mutations segregated as single mutations and were semi‐dominant when retested in heterozygous diploids. In addition, the TUN1‐3 allele affects the ability of cells to agglutinate during conjugation in the absence of tunicamycin. The seven mutations map to a single locus on linkage group VIII. These mutations may be useful as a selectable marker in transformation studies of Chlamydomonas and in studies of processes that require asparagine‐linked glycosylation.