Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 113, Issue 8, Pages 2247-2251Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1516453113
Keywords
yeasts; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Saccharomyces paradoxus; hybrids; social wasps
Categories
Funding
- Integrated Programme Agreement METAFOODLABS - Autonomous Province of Trento [S116/2012/537723]
- research office of the Autonomous Province of Trento
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The reproductive ecology of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is still largely unknown. Recent evidence of interspecific hybridization, high levels of strain heterozygosity, and prion transmission suggest that out-breeding occurs frequently in yeasts. Nevertheless, the place where yeasts mate and recombine in the wild has not been identified. We found that the intestine of social wasps hosts highly outbred S. cerevisiae strains as well as a rare S. cerevisiaexS. paradoxus hybrid. We show that the intestine of Polistes dominula social wasps favors the mating of S. cerevisiae strains among themselves and with S. paradoxus cells by providing a succession of environmental conditions prompting cell sporulation and spores germination. In addition, we prove that heterospecific mating is the only option for European S. paradoxus strains to survive in the gut. Taken together, these findings unveil the best hidden secret of yeast ecology, introducing the insect gut as an environmental alcove in which crosses occur, maintaining and generating the diversity of the ascomycetes.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available