Data and code for: Changes to the mtDNA copy number during yeast culture growth

We show that the mtDNA copy number in growing cultures of the yeast
Saccharomyces cerevisiae increases by a factor of up to 4, being lowest
(~10 per haploid genome) and stable during rapid fermentative growth, and
highest at the end of the respiratory phase. When yeast are grown on
glucose, the onset of the mtDNA copy number increase coincides with the
early stages of the diauxic shift, and the increase continues through
respiration. A lesser yet still substantial copy number increase occurs
when yeast are grown on a nonfermentable carbon source, i.e. when there is
no diauxic shift. The mtDNA copy number increase during and for some time
after the diauxic shift is not driven by an increase in cell size. The
copy number increase occurs in both haploid and diploid strains, but is
markedly attenuated in a diploid wild isolate that is a ready sporulator.
Strain-to-strain differences in mtDNA copy number are least apparent in
fermentation and most apparent in late respiration or stationary phase.
While changes in mitochondrial morphology and function were previously
known to accompany changes in physiological state, it had not been
previously shown that the mtDNA copy number changes substantially over
time in a clonal growing culture. The mtDNA copy number in yeast is
therefore a highly dynamic phenotype.