Evolutionary Advantage Conferred by an Eukaryote-to-Eukaryote Gene Transfer Event in Wine Yeasts

摘要: Although an increasing number of horizontal gene transfers have been reported in eukaryotes, experimental evidence for their adaptive value is lacking. Here, we report the recent transfer a 158-kb genomic region between Torulaspora microellipsoides and Saccharomyces cerevisiae wine yeasts or closely related strains. This has undergone several rearrangements S. strains, including loss conversion two tandemly duplicated FOT genes encoding oligopeptide transporters. We show that confer strong competitive advantage during grape must fermentation by diversity oligopeptides yeast can utilize as source nitrogen, thereby improving biomass formation, efficiency, cell viability. Thus, acquisition favored adaptation to nitrogen-limited environment. finding indicates anthropic environments offer substantial ecological opportunity evolutionary diversification through exchange distant species.