title: Genomic exploration of the hemiascomycetous yeasts: 21. Comparative functional classification of genes.
abstract: We explored the biological diversity of hemiascomycetous yeasts using a set of 22000 newly identified genes in 13 species through BLASTX searches. Genes without clear homologue in Saccharomyces cerevisiae appeared to be conserved in several species, suggesting that they were recently lost by S. cerevisiae. They often identified well-known species-specific traits. Cases of gene acquisition through horizontal transfer appeared to occur very rarely if at all. All identified genes were ascribed to functional classes. Functional classes were differently represented among species. Species classification by functional clustering roughly paralleled rDNA phylogeny. Unequal distribution of rapidly evolving, ascomycete-specific, genes among species and functions was shown to contribute strongly to this clustering. A few cases of gene family amplification were documented, but no general correlation could be observed between functional differentiation of yeast species and variations of gene family sizes. Yeast biological diversity seems thus to result from limited species-specific gene losses or duplications, and for a large part from rapid evolution of genes and regulatory factors dedicated to specific functions.
authors.affiliation: Collection de Levures d'Intérêt Biotechnologie, Laboratoire de Génétique Moléculaire et Cellulaire, INA-PG, INRA UMR216, CNRS URA1925, Thiverval-Grignon, France. claude@grignon.inra.fr
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gaillardin
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Duchateau-Nguyen
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tekaia
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Llorente
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Casaregola
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authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Toffano-Nioche
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aigle
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Artiguenave
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Blandin
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bolotin-Fukuhara
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bon
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brottier
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: de Montigny
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dujon
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Durrens
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lépingle
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malpertuy
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Neuvéglise
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ozier-Kalogéropoulos
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Potier
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Saurin
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Termier
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wésolowski-Louvel
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wincker
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Souciet
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weissenbach
mesh_terms: D001203:Ascomycota / Q000235:genetics*; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005784:Gene Amplification; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D014644:Genetic Variation; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods; D010802:Phylogeny; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D012984:Software; D013045:Species Specificity; D015003:Yeasts / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins