Unlocking the functional potential of polyploid yeasts

Simone Mozzachiodi (Corresponding Author), Kristoffer Krogerus, Brian Gibson, Alain Nicolas, Gianni Liti (Corresponding Author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Breeding and domestication have generated widely exploited crops, animals and microbes. However, many Saccharomyces cerevisiae industrial strains have complex polyploid genomes and are sterile, preventing genetic improvement strategies based on breeding. Here, we present a strain improvement approach based on the budding yeasts’ property to promote genetic recombination when meiosis is interrupted and cells return-to-mitotic-growth (RTG). We demonstrate that two unrelated sterile industrial strains with complex triploid and tetraploid genomes are RTG-competent and develop a visual screening for easy and high-throughput identification of recombined RTG clones based on colony phenotypes. Sequencing of the evolved clones reveal unprecedented levels of RTG-induced genome-wide recombination. We generate and extensively phenotype a RTG library and identify clones with superior biotechnological traits. Thus, we propose the RTG-framework as a fully non-GMO workflow to rapidly improve industrial yeasts that can be easily brought to the market.
Original languageEnglish
Article number2580
JournalNature Communications
Volume13
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 May 2022
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Meiosis
  • Plant Breeding
  • Polyploidy
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins/genetics
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae/genetics

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