title: Whole Genome Comparison Reveals High Levels of Inbreeding and Strain Redundancy Across the Spectrum of Commercial Wine Strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
abstract: Humans have been consuming wines for more than 7000 yr . For most of this time, fermentations were presumably performed by strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae that naturally found their way into the fermenting must . In contrast, most commercial wines are now produced by inoculation with pure yeast monocultures, ensuring consistent, reliable and reproducible fermentations, and there are now hundreds of these yeast starter cultures commercially available. In order to thoroughly investigate the genetic diversity that has been captured by over 50 yr of commercial wine yeast development and domestication, whole genome sequencing has been performed on 212 strains of S. cerevisiae, including 119 commercial wine and brewing starter strains, and wine isolates from across seven decades. Comparative genomic analysis indicates that, despite their large numbers, commercial strains, and wine strains in general, are extremely similar genetically, possessing all of the hallmarks of a population bottle-neck, and high levels of inbreeding. In addition, many commercial strains from multiple suppliers are nearly genetically identical, suggesting that the limits of effective genetic variation within this genetically narrow group may be approaching saturation.
authors: The Australian Wine Research Institute, PO Box 197, Glen Osmond, South Australia 5064, Australia Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia anthony.borneman@awri.com.au.
authors: Anthony R
authors: AR
authors: Borneman
authors: The Australian Wine Research Institute, PO Box 197, Glen Osmond, South Australia 5064, Australia.
authors: Angus H
authors: AH
authors: Forgan
authors: The Australian Wine Research Institute, PO Box 197, Glen Osmond, South Australia 5064, Australia.
authors: Radka
authors: R
authors: Kolouchova
authors: Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre and School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors: James A
authors: JA
authors: Fraser
authors: The Australian Wine Research Institute, PO Box 197, Glen Osmond, South Australia 5064, Australia.
authors: Simon A
authors: SA
authors: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D015825:Chromosomes, Fungal / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D055028:Comparative Genomic Hybridization; D056915:DNA Copy Number Variations; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016681:Genome, Fungal; D006579:Heterozygote; D010802:Phylogeny; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014920:Wine / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal
keywords: comparative genomics; fermentation; genome sequencing; industrial yeast