A genetic approach was used to isolate and characterize Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes affecting tRNA processing. Three mutants were isolated which were able to process and utilize splicing-deficient transcripts from inactivated Schizosaccharomyces pombe suppressor tRNA genes. Extragenic recovery of suppressibility was verified by the suppression of nonsense mutations in LEU2, HIS4, and ADE1. One mutant, SPL1-1, was chosen for detailed analysis on the basis of its increased synthesis of mature suppressor tRNA over wild-type cell levels as determined by Northern (RNA) analysis. This mutant exhibited strong suppression exclusively with the defective tRNA gene used in the mutant selection. Genetic analysis revealed that a single, dominant, haplo-lethal mutation was responsible for the suppression phenotype. The mutation mapped on chromosome III to an essential 1.5-kb open reading frame (L. S. Symington and T. D. Petes, Mol. Cell. Biol. 8:595-604, 1988), recently named NFS1 (S. G. Oliver et al., Nature [London] 357:38-46, 1992), located adjacent (centromere proximal) to LEU2.