Eukaryotes Genomes - YARROWIA LIPOLYTICA

Yarrowia lipolytica can be used to produce methane from lipids. It assimilates hydrocarbons and produces citric acid from n-alkanes, vegetable oils or glucose under aerobic conditions. Yarrowia lipolytica is routinely isolated from different food media (ie.cheeses, sausages)

It is a hemiascomycetous yeast and these yeasts represent a homogeneous phylogenetic group of eukaryotes with a relatively large diversity at physiological and ecological levels.

With their relatively small and compact genomes, yeasts offer a unique opportunity to explore eukaryotic genome evolution by comparative analysis of several species. Yeasts are widely used as cell factories, for the production of beer, wine and bread and more recently of various metabolic products such as vitamins, ethanol, citric acid, lipids, and for assimilation of hydrocarbons ie. Yarrowia lipolytica.

Complete sequencing and comparison of four hemiascomycetous yeasts has been undertaken these are: Candida glabrata, Kluyveromyces lactis , Debaryomyces hansenii , Yarrowia lipolytica. They were selected on the basis of their phylogenetic positions and their specific interest as human pathogens, or as industrially or environmentally important yeasts. Yarrowia lipolytica is very distantly related to the rest of the yeasts; instead it shares a number of common properties with filamentous fungi. For each species, the haploid type strain was sequenced. Of importance for evolutionary studies, the four yeast species display different mechanisms of sexuality. Yarrowia lipolytica has a haplo-diplontic cycle (that is, it alternates between haploid and diploid phases of similar importance). This work, which represents the first multispecies exploration of genome evolution across an entire eukaryotic phylum, reveals the variety of events and mechanisms that have taken place, and should allow useful comparisons with other phyla of multicellular organisms when more genome sequences are determined.

References:

http://cbi.labri.u-bordeaux.fr/Genolevures/about.phphttp://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/resources/sequenced_genomes/genome_guide_p4.shtml#yarrowia_lipolytica