A comparison of interfertility and in vitro DNA-DNA reassociation as criteria for speciation in the genus Kluyveromyces.
Hybridization studies based on the use of the prototrophic selection technique were undertaken to compare interfertility and DNA-DNA reassociation as criteria for speciation purposes in the yeast genus Kluyveromyces. Degrees of DNA-DNA reassociation greater than 70% between strains, as reported in the literature, were found to correlate with high recombination frequencies. Degrees of DNA-DNA reassociation less than 20% between strains did, however, not invariably coincide with the absence of interfertility between strains. If interfertility is accepted as criterion for conspecificity, the hitherto reported low degrees (less than 20%) of DNA-DNA reassociation in Kluyveromyces cannot confidently be employed for speciation purposes.
D001203:Ascomycota / Q000145:classification*; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D004271:DNA, Fungal; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D009695:Nucleic Acid Renaturation; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D004718:Saccharomycetales / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics
D004271:DNA, Fungal