Comparative functional genomics of the fission yeasts

Nicholas Rhind*, Zehua Chen, Moran Yassour, Dawn A. Thompson, Brian J. Haas, Naomi Habib, Ilan Wapinski, Sushmita Roy, Michael F. Lin, David I. Heiman, Sarah K. Young, Kanji Furuya, Yabin Guo, Alison Pidoux, Huei Mei Chen, Barbara Robbertse, Jonathan M. Goldberg, Keita Aoki, Elizabeth H. Bayne, Aaron M. BerlinChristopher A. Desjardins, Edward Dobbs, Livio Dukaj, Lin Fan, Michael G. FitzGerald, Courtney French, Sharvari Gujja, Klavs Hansen, Dan Keifenheim, Joshua Z. Levin, Rebecca A. Mosher, Carolin A. Müller, Jenna Pfiffner, Margaret Priest, Carsten Russ, Agata Smialowska, Peter Swoboda, Sean M. Sykes, Matthew Vaughn, Sonya Vengrova, Ryan Yoder, Qiandong Zeng, Robin Allshire, David Baulcombe, Bruce W. Birren, William Brown, Karl Ekwall, Manolis Kellis, Janet Leatherwood, Henry Levin, Hanah Margalit, Rob Martienssen, Conrad A. Nieduszynski, Joseph W. Spatafora, Nir Friedman, Jacob Z. Dalgaard, Peter Baumann, Hironori Niki, Aviv Regev, Chad Nusbaum

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

384 Scopus citations

Abstract

The fission yeast clade - comprising Schizosaccharomyces pombe, S. octosporus, S. cryophilus, and S. japonicus - occupies the basal branch of Ascomycete fungi and is an important model of eukaryote biology. A comparative annotation of these genomes identified a near extinction of transposons and the associated innovation of transposon-free centromeres. Expression analysis established that meiotic genes are subject to antisense transcription during vegetative growth, which suggests a mechanism for their tight regulation. In addition, trans-acting regulators control new genes within the context of expanded functional modules for meiosis and stress response. Differences in gene content and regulation also explain why, unlike the budding yeast of Saccharomycotina, fission yeasts cannot use ethanol as a primary carbon source. These analyses elucidate the genome structure and gene regulation of fission yeast and provide tools for investigation across the Schizosaccharomyces clade.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)930-936
Number of pages7
JournalScience
Volume332
Issue number6032
DOIs
StatePublished - 20 May 2011

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