Nanopore sequencing and comparative genome analysis confirm lager-brewing yeasts originated from a single hybridization

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundThe lager brewing yeast,S. pastorianus, is a hybrid betweenS. cerevisiaeandS. eubayanuswith extensive chromosome aneuploidy.S. pastorianusis subdivided into Group 1 and Group 2 strains, where Group 2 strains have higher copy number and a larger degree of heterozygosity forS. cerevisiaechromosomes. As a result, Group 2 strains were hypothesized to have emerged from a hybridization event distinct from Group 1 strains. Current genome assemblies ofS. pastorianusstrains are incomplete and highly fragmented, limiting our ability to investigate their evolutionary history.ResultsTo fill this gap, we generated a chromosome-level genome assembly of theS. pastorianusstrain CBS 1483 using MinION sequencing and analysed the newly assembled subtelomeric regions and chromosome heterozygosity. To analyse the evolutionary history ofS. pastorianusstrains, we developed Alpaca: a method to compute sequence similarity between genomes without assuming linear evolution. Alpaca revealed high similarities between theS. cerevisiaesubgenomes of Group 1 and 2 strains, and marked differences from sequencedS. cerevisiae strains.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that Group 1 and Group 2 strains originated from a single hybridization involving a heterozygousS. cerevisiaestrain, followed by different evolutionary trajectories. The clear differences between both groups may originate from a severe population bottleneck caused by the isolation of the first pure cultures. Alpaca provides a computationally inexpensive method to analyse evolutionary relationships while considering non-linear evolution such as horizontal gene transfer and sexual reproduction, providing a complementary viewpoint beyond traditional phylogenetic approaches.