Cited by 59Evolution and Genetic DynamicsFungal and yeast genetics researchYeasts and Rust Fungi Studies

Evolution of ecological dominance of yeast species in high-sugar environments

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Williams, Kathryn M., Liu, Ping, Fay, Justin C.·2015·Evolution

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

In budding yeasts, fermentation in the presence of oxygen evolved around the time of a whole genome duplication (WGD) and is thought to confer dominance in high-sugar environments because ethanol is toxic to many species. Although there are many fermentative yeast species, only Saccharomyces cerevisiae consistently dominates wine fermentations. In this study, we use coculture experiments and intrinsic growth rate assays to examine the relative fitness of non-WGD and WGD yeast species across environments to assess when S. cerevisiae's ability to dominate high-sugar environments arose. We show that S. cerevisiae dominates nearly all other non-WGD and WGD species except for its sibling species S. paradoxus in both grape juice and a high-sugar rich medium. Of the species we tested, S. cerevisiae and S. paradoxus have evolved the highest ethanol tolerance and intrinsic growth rate in grape juice. However, the ability of S. cerevisiae and S. paradoxus to dominate certain species depends on the temperature and the type of high-sugar environment. Our results indicate that dominance of high-sugar environments evolved much more recently than the WGD, most likely just prior to or during the differentiation of Saccharomyces species, and that evolution of multiple traits contributes to S. cerevisiae's ability to dominate wine fermentations.

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  • Many aspects of S. cerevisiae energy metabolism are relatively recent evolutionary adaptations to the predominantly fermentative lifestyle and are not typical of other yeast lineages.

    “many aspects of its energy metabolism are relatively recent evolutionary adaptations to the predominantly fermentative lifestyle and are not typical of other yeast lineages”

    From Mitochondrial retrograde control of transcription evolves with respiratory stress, metabolic adaptation, and virulence in budding yeasts (2026) · cites this paper as Williams et al. 2015

    The passage on the evolution of fermentation (section labelled Abstract; page unavailable) describes changes in energy metabolism in S. cerevisiae’s lineage and says most yeast species instead use respiration in the presence of oxygen. But the Discussion calls the metabolic change ancient and says that ecological dominance—not the fermentative lifestyle—evolved much more recently. The source therefore does not support characterizing the metabolic adaptations themselves as relatively recent. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • S. cerevisiae belongs to yeasts exhibiting the Crabtree effect, a preference for fermentative energy production in high glucose concentration even in the presence of oxygen.

    “S. cerevisiae belongs to yeasts exhibiting the Crabtree effect—preference for fermentative energy production in high glucose concentration even in the presence of oxygen (Hagman et al. 2013; Pfeiffer and Morley 2014; Williams et al. 2015; Nespolo et al. 2020).”

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Radler, F. 1993 Yeasts—metabolism of organic acids Pp. 165– 182 in Fleet G. H., ed. Wine microbiology and biotechnology. Harwood Academic Publishers, Chur, Switzerland.

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Authors
Williams, K. M., Liu, P., & Fay, J. C.
Affiliations
Washington University in St. Louis (US)
Venue
Evolution
Published
2015-07-14
Volume
69
Issue
8
Pages
2079-2093
ISSN
  • 0014-3820 (ISSN-L)
  • 1558-5646
OpenAlex
W1901476197
Cited by
59
References
99
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 6
FWCI
5.24
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Evolution (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Open Scholarship Institutional Repository (Washington University in St. Louis) (submittedVersion)
  • Washington University in St. Louis Libraries
Funders
National Institutes of Health (HG000045, GM080669)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Fungal and yeast genetics research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Yeasts and Rust Fungi Studies
Keywords
Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces paradoxus, whole-genome duplication, ecological dominance, ethanol tolerance, intrinsic rate of increase, wine fermentation, grape juice, interspecific competition, temperature effects
MeSH terms
Ethanol, Fermentation, Genes, Fungal, Saccharomyces, Wine, Coculture Techniques, Gene Duplication, Vitis, Carbohydrate Metabolism

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