Microbe domestication and the identification of the wild genetic stock of lager-brewing yeast
- 22 August 2011
- journal article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 108 (35), 14539-14544
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1105430108
Abstract
Domestication of plants and animals promoted humanity's transition from nomadic to sedentary lifestyles, demographic expansion, and the emergence of civilizations. In contrast to the well-documented successes of crop and livestock breeding, processes of microbe domestication remain obscure, despite the importance of microbes to the production of food, beverages, and biofuels. Lager-beer, first brewed in the 15th century, employs an allotetraploid hybrid yeast, Saccharomyces pastorianus (syn. Saccharomyces carlsbergensis), a domesticated species created by the fusion of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae ale-yeast with an unknown cryotolerant Saccharomyces species. We report the isolation of that species and designate it Saccharomyces eubayanus sp. nov. because of its resemblance to Saccharomyces bayanus (a complex hybrid of S. eubayanus, Saccharomyces uvarum, and S. cerevisiae found only in the brewing environment). Individuals from populations of S. eubayanus and its sister species, S. uvarum, exist in apparent sympatry in Nothofagus (Southern beech) forests in Patagonia, but are isolated genetically through intrinsic postzygotic barriers, and ecologically through host-preference. The draft genome sequence of S. eubayanus is 99.5% identical to the non-S. cerevisiae portion of the S. pastorianus genome sequence and suggests specific changes in sugar and sulfite metabolism that were crucial for domestication in the lager-brewing environment. This study shows that combining microbial ecology with comparative genomics facilitates the discovery and preservation of wild genetic stocks of domesticated microbes to trace their history, identify genetic changes, and suggest paths to further industrial improvement.Keywords
This publication has 37 references indexed in Scilit:
- Rapid Expansion and Functional Divergence of Subtelomeric Gene Families in YeastsCurrent Biology, 2010
- Patterns of East Asian pig domestication, migration, and turnover revealed by modern and ancient DNAProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2010
- Remarkably ancient balanced polymorphisms in a multi-locus gene networkNature, 2010
- Population genomics of domestic and wild yeastsNature, 2009
- Comprehensive polymorphism survey elucidates population structure of Saccharomyces cerevisiaeNature, 2009
- Genome Sequence of the Lager Brewing Yeast, an Interspecies HybridDNA Research, 2009
- Reconstruction of the genome origins and evolution of the hybrid lager yeast Saccharomyces pastorianusGenome Research, 2008
- Domestication and early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: Origins, diffusion, and impactProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008
- Biogeography, Host Specificity, and Molecular Phylogeny of the Basidiomycetous Yeast Phaffia rhodozyma and Its Sexual Form, Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhousApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2007
- Pure and Mixed Genetic Lines of Saccharomyces bayanus and Saccharomyces pastorianus and Their Contribution to the Lager Brewing Strain GenomeApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2006