Conditional Overdominance at an Alcohol Dehydrogenase Locus in Yeast

Documented examples of heterosis attributable to overdominance at specific protein-encoding gene loci have rarely been reported, the association of sickle cell hemoglobin with malarial resistance being the best documented example of this phenomenon. Here we report an example of overdominance that is temperature- and allyl alcohol-dependent and due to heterozygosity at the ADH1 locus, involving two ADHI functional mutants. Overdominance appears to be due in part to an intermediate level of ADHI activity in the heterozygote. Unlike previous work with this system using haploid strains, the NAD+/NADH ratios show no negative correlation with allyl alcohol resistance. This system is formally equivalent to that of sickle cell hemoglobin and shows promise as a tool for investigating the physiological basis for overdominance.