Gleaning evolutionary insights from the genome sequence of a probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardii

Abstract

Abstract Background The yeast Saccharomyces boulardii is used worldwide as a probiotic to alleviate the effects of several gastrointestinal diseases and control antibiotics-associated diarrhea. While many studies report the probiotic effects of S. boulardii, no genome information for this yeast is currently available in the public domain. Results We report the 11.4 Mbp draft genome of this probiotic yeast. The draft genome was obtained by assembling Roche 454 FLX + shotgun data into 194 contigs with an N50 of 251 Kbp. We compare our draft genome with all other Saccharomyces cerevisiae genomes. Conclusions Our analysis confirms the close similarity of S. boulardii to S. cerevisiae strains and provides a framework to understand the probiotic effects of this yeast, which exhibits unique physiological and metabolic properties.