Action of Patulin on Yeast

The action of patulin on Saccharomyces cerevisiae was studied. At weak doses,
the drug inhibited growth, but inhibition was transient. After 10 min, syntheses of
rRNA, tRNA, and probably mRNA were blocked; this was shown by radioactive
precursor incorporation assays and gel electrophoresis of RNAs. After recovery
of growth, patulin disappeared from the medium. It seemed that this degradation
resulted from the activity of an inducible enzymatic system. Induced cells resisted
very high patulin concentrations.