Reference: Pinto J, et al. (2025) Exploring adaptation routes to cold temperatures in the Saccharomyces genus. PLoS Genet 21(2):e1011199

Reference Help

Abstract


The identification of traits that affect adaptation of microbial species to external abiotic factors, such as temperature, is key for our understanding of how biodiversity originates and can be maintained in a constantly changing environment. The Saccharomyces genus, which includes eight species with different thermotolerant profiles, represent an ideal experimental platform to study the impact of adaptive alleles in different genetic backgrounds. Previous studies identified a group of adaptive genes for maintenance of growth at lower temperatures. Here, we carried out a genus-wide assessment of the role of genes partially responsible for cold-adaptation in all eight Saccharomyces species for six candidate genes. We showed that the cold tolerance trait of S. kudriavzevii and S. eubayanus is likely to have evolved from different routes, involving genes important for the conservation of redox-balance, and for the long-chain fatty acid metabolism, respectively. For several loci, temperature- and species-dependent epistasis was detected, underscoring the plasticity and complexity of the genetic interactions. The natural isolates of S. kudriavzevii, S. jurei and S. mikatae had a significantly higher expression of the genes involved in the redox balance compared to S. cerevisiae, suggesting a role at transcriptional level. To distinguish the effects of gene expression from allelic variation, we independently replaced either the promoters or the coding sequences (CDS) of two genes in four yeast species with those derived from S. kudriavzevii. Our data consistently showed a significant fitness improvement at cold temperatures in the strains carrying the S. kudriavzevii promoter, while growth was lower upon CDS swapping. These results suggest that transcriptional strength plays a bigger role in growth maintenance at cold temperatures over the CDS and supports a model of adaptation centred on stochastic tuning of the expression network.

Reference Type
Journal Article
Authors
Pinto J, Balarezo-Cisneros LN, Delneri D
Primary Lit For
Additional Lit For
Review For

Gene Ontology Annotations


Increase the total number of rows showing on this page using the pull-down located below the table, or use the page scroll at the table's top right to browse through the table's pages; use the arrows to the right of a column header to sort by that column; filter the table using the "Filter" box at the top of the table.

Gene/Complex Qualifier Gene Ontology Term Aspect Annotation Extension Evidence Method Source Assigned On Reference

Phenotype Annotations


Increase the total number of rows showing on this page using the pull-down located below the table, or use the page scroll at the table's top right to browse through the table's pages; use the arrows to the right of a column header to sort by that column; filter the table using the "Filter" box at the top of the table; click on the small "i" buttons located within a cell for an annotation to view further details.

Gene Phenotype Experiment Type Mutant Information Strain Background Chemical Details Reference

Disease Annotations


Increase the total number of rows showing on this page using the pull-down located below the table, or use the page scroll at the table's top right to browse through the table's pages; use the arrows to the right of a column header to sort by that column; filter the table using the "Filter" box at the top of the table.

Gene Disease Ontology Term Qualifier Evidence Method Source Assigned On Reference

Regulation Annotations


Increase the total number of rows displayed on this page using the pull-down located below the table, or use the page scroll at the table's top right to browse through the table's pages; use the arrows to the right of a column header to sort by that column; to filter the table by a specific experiment type, type a keyword into the Filter box (for example, “microarray”); download this table as a .txt file using the Download button or click Analyze to further view and analyze the list of target genes using GO Term Finder, GO Slim Mapper, or SPELL.

Regulator Target Direction Regulation Of Happens During Method Evidence

Post-translational Modifications


Increase the total number of rows showing on this page by using the pull-down located below the table, or use the page scroll at the table's top right to browse through its pages; use the arrows to the right of a column header to sort by that column; filter the table using the "Filter" box at the top of the table.

Site Modification Modifier Reference

Interaction Annotations


Genetic Interactions

Increase the total number of rows showing on this page by using the pull-down located below the table, or use the page scroll at the table's top right to browse through the table's pages; use the arrows to the right of a column header to sort by that column; filter the table using the "Filter" box at the top of the table; click on the small "i" buttons located within a cell for an annotation to view further details about experiment type and any other genes involved in the interaction.

Interactor Interactor Allele Assay Annotation Action Phenotype SGA score P-value Source Reference

Physical Interactions

Increase the total number of rows showing on this page by using the pull-down located below the table, or use the page scroll at the table's top right to browse through the table's pages; use the arrows to the right of a column header to sort by that column; filter the table using the "Filter" box at the top of the table; click on the small "i" buttons located within a cell for an annotation to view further details about experiment type and any other genes involved in the interaction.

Interactor Interactor Assay Annotation Action Modification Source Reference

Functional Complementation Annotations


Increase the total number of rows showing on this page by using the pull-down located below the table, or use the page scroll at the table's top right to browse through its pages; use the arrows to the right of a column header to sort by that column; filter the table using the "Filter" box at the top of the table.

Gene Species Gene ID Strain background Direction Details Source Reference