Introduction
Sensu strictu species of the genus Saccharomyces, as their scientific name implies,
are yeast specialized for growth on sugar. In comparison to other yeasts, Saccharomyces
favor aerobic fermentation over respiration in the presence of high concentrations
of sugar [1]. Fermentation results in the production of ethanol and a competitive
advantage, as these yeasts are tolerant to high concentrations of ethanol [2]. One
of these species, S. cerevisiae, has served as one of the best model systems for understanding
the eukaryotic cell and has served as the dominant species for the production of beer,
bread, and wine [3]. However, it is worth noting that strains of S. bayanus are sometimes
used for wine production and strains of S. pastorianus, hybrids between S. cerevisiae
and S. bayanus, are used to brew lagers [4].
Since the discovery of yeast as the cause of fermentation [5], numerous strains of
S. cerevisiae have been isolated, the majority of which have been found associated
with the production of alcoholic beverages [6–9]. In many instances, the strains are
clearly specialized for use in the lab [10] and the production of wine [11], beer
[12], and bread [13]. This has lead to the common view that S. cerevisiae is a domesticated
species that has continuously evolved in association with the production of alcoholic
beverages [3,6,14]. Under this model, the occasional strains of S. cerevisiae found
in nature are thought to be migrants from human-associated fermentations.
The first use of S. cerevisiae is likely to have been for the production of wine,
rather then bread or beer [3,15]. S. cerevisiae has been associated with winemaking
since 3150 BC, based on extraction of DNA from ancient wine containers [16], and the
earliest evidence for winemaking is to 7000 BC from the molecular analysis of pottery
jars found in China [17]. The idea that S. cerevisiae was first used to produce wine
rather than beer or bread is further supported by the fact that the production of
wine requires no inoculum of yeast [7]. In addition, strains associated with whisky,
ale, and bakeries show amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) profiles similar
to various wine strains [18].
To examine the relationship between vineyard and non-vineyard strains of S. cerevisiae
and to understand their evolutionary origin, we have surveyed DNA sequence variation
in 81 strains isolated from geographically and ecologically diverse sources (Table
1). These include 60 strains associated with human fermentations, predominantly from
vineyards, and 19 strains not associated with human fermentations, predominantly from
immunocompromised patients and tree exudates.
Table 1
Strains Studied and Their Source
NA, not available; seg., segregant.
Table 1
Continued
Results/ Discussion
DNA sequence variation was examined in 81 yeast strains at five unlinked loci (see
Materials and Methods). A total of 184 polymorphic sites were found. Figure 1 shows
all of the variable sites along with a neighbor-joining tree constructed from these
sites. There are two immediately striking features of the data. First, there are high
levels of linkage disequilibrium between sites found in unlinked genes. This linkage
disequilibrium cannot be explained by a lack of recombination because the four gamete
test [19] shows evidence of recombination both within and between loci. The high level
of linkage disequilibrium is most likely caused by population subdivision and suggests
that the data from these five genes provide a genomic view of population differentiation
among these strains. Second, there are significant levels of population differentiation
based on the source from which the samples were isolated (see Materials and Methods).
A number of strains are worth noting. Y9 is very closely related to the saké strains
and was obtained from Indonesian ragi, or yeast cake, which like saké is made by fermenting
koji, a mixture of rice and the mold Aspergillus oryzae [20]. Y3 and Y12 were isolated
from African palm wine, made from fermenting sap of the oil palm, Elaeis guineensis.
Y5 was isolated from African bili wine.
Figure 1
A Neighbor-Joining Tree Shows Differentiation among Yeast Strains Isolated from Different
Sources
The tree was constructed from polymorphic sites found at five unlinked loci and was
rooted using S. paradoxus. Strains are colored according to the substrates from which
they were isolated. The right side shows color-coded polymorphism data with minor
alleles shown in black, major alleles shown in white, missing data shown in light
gray, and heterozygous sites shown in orange.
If strains of S. cerevisiae that are not associated with human fermentations have
escaped their manmade environments, their progenitors should be closely related to
strains isolated from human fermentations. Two aspects of the data indicate this is
not the case. First, the oldest lineages at the root of the tree, that are most similar
to S. paradoxus, were isolated from tree exudates in North America and Africa, or
from immunocompromised patients. Although one of the clinical samples is most closely
related to vineyard strains, the majority of clinical isolates are not closely related
to strains obtained from human-associated fermentations. Second, strains from grape
wine and saké wine production contain significantly less variation, as measured by
the average number of pairwise differences between strains [21], than is found in
natural and clinical isolates, which contain just as much variation as is found in
the total sample (Table 2). However, diversity in strains associated with human fermentations
other than grape and saké wine production is not reduced compared to the clinical
and natural isolates. The four strains associated with fermentations, three of which
were isolated from traditional African wines, show the greatest diversity and represent
some of the oldest lineages. This raises the possibility that S. cerevisiae was domesticated
in Africa and that most vineyard and saké strains were derived from a domesticated
African strain. If so, one would expect clinical and natural isolates to be more closely
related to strains isolated from vineyards, which have a cosmopolitan distribution
compared to strains from traditional African wine. Clinical and natural isolates,
however, show no obvious relationship to strains associated with manmade fermentations.
Table 2
Diversity among Strains
aOnly strains without missing data are used.
bπ is the average number of pairwise differences between strains, per basepair. The
standard deviation is shown in parentheses.
Although the genealogical relationships among strains of S. cerevisiae show that the
species as a whole is not domesticated, the data do support the hypothesis that some
strains are domesticated. Based on the low levels of diversity within vineyard and
saké strains and the clear separation of these two groups, we propose two domestication
events, one for yeast used to produce grape wine and one for yeast used to produce
rice wine. When might these events have occurred? Domestication would have occurred
after the divergence between the vineyard and saké strains but before differentiation
among the vineyard and among the saké strains. These two time points can be roughly
estimated by the average number of differences per synonymous site between the saké
and vineyard strains, 1.28 × 10−2, and the average number of differences among the
vineyard, 2.92 × 10−3, and among the saké strains, 4.06 × 10−3, respectively (see
Materials and Methods). Assuming a point mutation rate of 1.84 × 10−10 per base pair
(bp) per generation and 2,920 generations per year, the estimate for the divergence
time between the two groups is approximately 11,900 years ago, and within the vineyard
group and saké group is approximately 2,700 and approximately 3,800 years ago, respectively
(see Materials and Methods). These dates could easily be an order of magnitude older
if the number of generations per year is one tenth that obtained assuming an exponential
growth rate. Interestingly, the time period is consistent with the earliest archeological
evidence for winemaking, approximately 9,000 years ago [17]. It should be noted that
proof that these strains are domesticated requires evidence that they have acquired
characteristics advantageous to humans through human activity, whether intentional
or not. The alternative hypothesis to domestication is that initial fermentations
selected those natural isolates most amenable to alcoholic beverage production and
that these initial isolates have been used by humans ever since.
The source population for both the saké and grape wine strains is not clear, but is
likely similar to the source population for the clinical strains. Insects, particularly
fruit flies, present one possibility [22,23]. Numerous strains of S. cerevisiae and
S. paradoxus have been isolated from oak tree exudates in North America [24], and
tree exudates are often visited by insects [22]. Three of these oak tree isolates
were included in our study and are among the most diverse of the strains (Figure 1).
Given that S. paradoxus is most often found in association with tree exudates from
both Europe [25,26] and North America [24], strains of S. cerevisiae isolated from
tree exudates may be truly “wild” yeast. Whether the yeast isolated from African palm
wine is domesticated remains an open question, although it is worth noting that African
palm wine is made by collecting sap tapped from oil palm trees and fermentation occurs
naturally without the addition of yeast.
Materials and Methods
Strains were obtained from a number of individuals and stock centers. B1–B6 were obtained
from B. Dunn; I14 from J. Fay; CDB and PR from Red Star, Berkeley, California, United
States; K1–K15 from N. Goto-Yamamoto and the NODAI culture collection; M1–M34 from
R. Mortimer; SB from Whole Foods, Berkeley, California, United States; UC1–UC10 from
the University of California, Davis stock center; Y1–Y12 from C. Kurtzman and the
ARS culture collection; YJM145–YJM1129 from J. McCusker; and YPS163–YPS1009 were from
the collection of P. Sniegowski.
Five genes, CCA1, CYT1, MLS1, PDR10, and ZDS2, and their promoters were sequenced
in 81 strains (see Table 1). These genes were randomly chosen from all divergently
transcribed intergenic sequences upstream of functionally annotated genes with clear
orthologs in S. paradoxus. The sequenced regions include 3,671 bp of coding sequence
and 3,561 bp of noncoding sequence. For each gene, both strands of purified PCR products
were sequenced using Big Dye (Perkin Elmer, Boston, Massachusetts, United States)
termination reactions. Sequence variation was identified using phred, phrap, and consed
[27]. For construction of the neighbor-joining tree, a single allele was used from
strains with heterozygous sites. The allele was randomly chosen from the two haplotypes
inferred by PHASE [28].
Sequence data were analyzed using DNASP [29]. Population subdivision was tested by
a permutations test according to the source categories from which each strain was
obtained (Table 1). The average time since divergence of two strains was obtained
by k = 2μt, where k is the substitution rate, μ is the mutation rate per bp and t
is the time in generations. The mutation rate has been estimated at CAN1 and SUP3
at 2.25 × 10−10 per base pair per generation [30]. Given that 82% of spontaneous mutations
are single base substitutions [31], we estimate the point mutation rate is 1.84 ×
10−10 per bp per generation. S. cerevisiae can reproduce in 90 min, or 16 generations
per day. However, even under optimal laboratory conditions the number of generations
over a 24-h period is typically much less. To obtain divergence time in years rather
than generations, we assumed S. cerevisiae can go through a maximum of eight generations
per day or 2,920 generations per year.
Supporting Information
Accession Numbers
The sequences of the genes CCA1, CYT1, MLS1, PDR10, and ZDS2 that are discussed in
this paper have been deposited into GenBank (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/)
as accession numbers AY942206–AY942556.