Fifty Aureobasidium pullulans genomes reveal a recombining polyextremotolerant generalist

Gostinčar, Cene (author), Turk, Martina (author), Zajc, Janja (author), Gunde-Cimerman, Nina (author)

The black yeast Aureobasidium pullulans is a textbook example of a generalistic and ubiquitous fungus thriving in a wide variety of environments. To investigate whether A. pullulans is a true generalist, or alternatively, whether part of its versatility can be attributed to intraspecific specialization masked by cryptic diversification undetectable by traditional phylogenetic analyses, we sequenced and analysed the genomes of 50 strains of A. pullulans from different habitats and geographic locations. No population structure was observed in the sequenced strains. Decay of linkage disequilibrium over shorter physical distances (<100 bp) than in many sexually reproducing fungi indicates a high level of recombination in the species. A homothallic mating locus was found in all of the sequenced genomes. Aureobasidium pullulans appears to have a homogeneous population genetics structure, which is best explained by good dispersal and high levels of recombination. This means that A. pullulans is a true generalist that can inhabit different habitats without substantial specialization to any of these habitats at the genomic level. Furthermore, in the future, the high level of A. pullulans recombination can be exploited for the identification of genomic loci that are involved in the many biotechnologically useful traits of this black yeast.

• Language: English
• Keywords: black yeast, genome
• Work type: Article (dk_c)
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Year: 2019
• Publication status in journal: Published
• Article version: Publisher's version of article
• Number of pages: Str. 3638-3652
• Numbering: Vol. 21, iss. 10
• UDC: 577.21
• ISSN on article: 1462-2912
• DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.14693
• COBISS.SI-ID: 5158991
• Publication date in RUL: 09.09.2019

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Environmental Microbiology
• Shortened title: Environ. microbiol. (Print)
• Publisher: Society for Applied Microbiology, Wiley
• ISSN: 1462-2912
• COBISS.SI-ID: 626197

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• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.
• Licensing start date: 02.10.2019