INACTIVATION OF SEXUAL AGGLUTINATION IN HANSENULA WINGEI AND SACCHAROMYCES KLUYVERI BY DISULFIDE-CLEAVING AGENTS

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Abstract
Mating types of both Hansenula wingei and Saccharomyces kluyveri can be activated to produce uniformly strong sexual agglutination by treatments with various solvents, such as 8 M LiBr. The strongly agglutinative mating-type preparations were irreversibly inactivated for sexual agglutination by various chemical treatments. Type 5 of H. wingei was inactivated by disulfide-cleaving reagents, but type 21 of H. wingei was not. Type 3 of S. kluyveri was more sensitive than type 26 of S. kluyveri to inactivation by disulfide-cleaving reagents. Comparison of sensitivities to these and other treatments, plus a moderately strong cross-agglutination between type 3 and type 21, indicated that the sexually agglutinative elements on type 3 are similar to type 5, and those of type 21 are similar to those of type 26. Inactivation-rate experiments showed a loss of agglutinative ability according to a sigmoid decrement with time for both types 5 and 21. The apparent extent of inactivation depended markedly on agglutination test conditions. Results of these experiments were interpreted to indicate tentatively, first, that the agglutinative elements of both types of a species are proteins and, second, that several agglutinating linkages are formed between any two cells in sexual agglutination.