Basic principles of yeast genomics, a personal recollection

Abstract

The genomes of many yeast species or strain isolates have now been sequenced with an accelerating momentum that quickly relegates initial data to history, albeit that they are less than two decades old. Today, novel yeast genomes are entirely sequenced for a variety of reasons, often only to identify a few expected genes of specific interest, thus providing a wealth of data, heterogenous in quality and completion but informative about the origin and evolution of this heterogeneous collection of unicellular modern fungi. However, how many scientists fully appreciate the important conceptual and technological roles played by yeasts in the extraordinary development of today's genomics? Novel notions of general significance emerged from the very first eukaryote sequenced, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and were successively refined and extended over time. Tools with general applications were originally developed with this yeast; and surprises emerged from the results. Here, I have tried to recollect the gradual building up of knowledge as yeast genomics developed, and then briefly summarize our present views about the basic nature of yeast genomes, based on the most recent data.

Keywords: chromosome; compositional bias; duplication; gene loss; genetic map; horizontal exchange; hybrid; introgression; intron; loss of heterozygosity; mobile element; non-coding RNA; orphan gene; physical map; protogene.