NEW YORK, July 8 (GenomeWeb News) - A consortium of French scientists has sequenced the genomes of four hemiascomycetes yeast species and studied their evolutionary relationships.
The researchers sequenced the genomes of Candida glabrata, which causes candidiasis in humans, Kluyveromyces lactis, a species used in the laboratory, Debaryomyces hansenii, a salt-tolerant yeast, and Yarrowia lipolytica, an alkane-using yeast commonly used in genetic studies.
They scientists reported their results in last week's Nature. They found approximately 24,200 novel genes in total. Their genomic analysis revealed that the four species have evolved through a variety of molecular mechanisms, including tandem gene repeats, duplication of segments, a massive genome duplication, and extensive gene loss.