Cited by 121Fungal and yeast genetics researchYeasts and Rust Fungi StudiesMicrobial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction

Genomic factors shape carbon and nitrogen metabolic niche breadth across Saccharomycotina yeasts

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Opulente, Dana A., LaBella, Abigail Leavitt, Harrison, Marie-Claire, Wolters, John F., Liu, Chao, Li, Yonglin, Kominek, Jacek, Steenwyk, Jacob L. +24 more·2024·Science

Abstract

Organisms exhibit extensive variation in ecological niche breadth, from very narrow (specialists) to very broad (generalists). Two general paradigms have been proposed to explain this variation: (i) trade-offs between performance efficiency and breadth and (ii) the joint influence of extrinsic (environmental) and intrinsic (genomic) factors. We assembled genomic, metabolic, and ecological data from nearly all known species of the ancient fungal subphylum Saccharomycotina (1154 yeast strains from 1051 species), grown in 24 different environmental conditions, to examine niche breadth evolution. We found that large differences in the breadth of carbon utilization traits between yeasts stem from intrinsic differences in genes encoding specific metabolic pathways, but we found limited evidence for trade-offs. These comprehensive data argue that intrinsic factors shape niche breadth variation in microbes.

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Crossref · 10.1126/science.adj4503

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  • C. albicans and S. cerevisiae are separated by at least 234 MYA according to a time tree calculated using phylogenomic data.

    “are separated by a considerable evolutionary distance of at least 234 MYA according to the time tree calculated using phylogenomic data (Opulente et al. 2024)”

    From Mitochondrial retrograde control of transcription evolves with respiratory stress, metabolic adaptation, and virulence in budding yeasts (2026) · cites this paper as Opulente et al. 2024

    The 'Genome sequencing, annotation, and phylogenomics' section says the authors used phylogenomic data to estimate a yeast time tree. The Introduction identifies C. albicans among the yeasts studied, but the passages in our copy do not give a divergence date for C. albicans and S. cerevisiae or substantiate the claimed minimum of 234 MYA (searched: 234, divergence time, and million years ago). (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The duplication event occurred during the evolution of the subphylum Saccharomycotina, after the split of Lipomycetales, Trigonopsidales, and Dipodascales, and before the ancestor of the remaining lineages, about 234 MYA.

    “This event occurred during the evolution of the subphylum Saccharomycotina, after the split of the three earliest branching orders—Lipomycetales, Trigonopsidales, and Dipodascales that still contain a single Rtg ortholog—and the ancestor of the remaining lineages, about 234 MYA according to the time tree estimation based on recent phylogenomic data (Opulente et al. 2024).”

    From Mitochondrial retrograde control of transcription evolves with respiratory stress, metabolic adaptation, and virulence in budding yeasts (2026) · cites this paper as Opulente et al. 2024

    The Introduction describes a genome-scale Saccharomycotina phylogeny, and “Genome sequencing, annotation, and phylogenomics” says the authors estimated a yeast time tree. The passages do not date the specified ancestor to about 234 MYA or place the Rtg duplication between the named orders and the remaining lineages (searched: 234, the order names, and Rtg ortholog duplication). (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Cites

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Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [80]Supplementary Materials: Genomic factors shape carbon and nitrogen metabolic niche breadth across Saccharomycotina yeasts. Science (1979). PMC11298794 38662846
  2. [108]Kriventseva EV, Kuznetsov D, Tegenfeldt F, Manni M, Dias R, Simão FA, Zdobnov EM, OrthoDB v10: Sampling the diversity of animal, plant, fungal, protist, bacterial and viral genomes for evolutionary and functional annotations of orthologs. Nucleic Acids Res 47 (2019). PMC6323947 30395283
  3. [109]Waterhouse RM, Seppey M, Simão FA, Manni M, Ioannidis P, Klioutchnikov G, V Kriventseva E, Zdobnov EM, BUSCO applications from quality assessments to gene prediction and phylogenomics. Mol Biol Evol 35, 543– 548 (2018). 29220515 PMC5850278

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Authors
Opulente, D. A., LaBella, A. L., Harrison, M.-C., Wolters, J. F., Liu, C., Li, Y., Kominek, J., Steenwyk, J. L., Stoneman, H. R., VanDenAvond, J., Miller, C. R., Langdon, Q. K., Silva, M., Gonçalves, C., Ubbelohde, E. J., Li, Y., Buh, K. V., Jarzyna, M., Haase, M. A. B., Rosa, C. A., ČCadež, N., Libkind, D., DeVirgilio, J. H., Hulfachor, A. B., Kurtzman, C. P., Sampaio, J. P., Gonçalves, P., Zhou, X., Shen, X.-X., Groenewald, M., Rokas, A., & Hittinger, C. T.
Affiliations
  • University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
  • University of North Carolina at Charlotte (US)
  • Vanderbilt University (US)
  • Zhejiang University (CN)
  • South China Agricultural University (CN)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
  • Universidade Nova de Lisboa (PT)
  • Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (BR)
  • Food Science and Technology Department, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
  • Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (AR)
  • Agricultural Research Service (US)
  • Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute (NL)
Corresponding author
  • Opulente, Dana A.
  • LaBella, Abigail Leavitt
  • Harrison, Marie-Claire
  • Wolters, John F.
  • Rokas, Antonis
  • Hittinger, Chris Todd
Venue
Science
Published
2024-04-26
Volume
384
Issue
6694
Pages
eadj4503-eadj4503
ISSN
  • 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9203
OpenAlex
W4395447529
Cited by
121
References
197
Citations by year
2026: 47 · 2025: 55 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 1
FWCI
16.29
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Science (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • KNAW Research Portal (The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) (publishedVersion)
  • CONICET Digital (CONICET) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DESC0018409)
  • National Human Genome Research Institute (T32HG002760)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32GM007133)
  • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R56AI146096, R01AI153356)
Topics
  • 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
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
Keywords
niche breadth, carbon metabolism, nitrogen metabolism, metabolic specialization, genomic factors, metabolic pathway genes
MeSH terms
Ascomycota, Carbon, Nitrogen, Phylogeny, Genome, Fungal, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Gene-Environment Interaction

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