Abstract

Interspecies hybridization is an important evolutionary mechanism in yeasts. The genus Zygosaccharomyces in particular contains numerous hybrid strains and/or species. Here, we investigated the genome of Zygosaccharomyces strain MT15, an isolate from Maotai-flavor Chinese liquor fermentation. We found that it is an interspecies hybrid and identified it as Zygosaccharomyces pseudobailii. The Z. bailii species complex consists of three species: Z. bailii, which is not a hybrid and whose 10 Mb genome is designated 'A', and two hybrid species Z. parabailii ('AB' genome, 20 Mb) and Z. pseudobailii ('AC' genome, 20 Mb). The A, B and C subgenomes are all approximately 7%-10% different from one another in nucleotide sequence, and are derived from three different parental species. Despite being hybrids, Z. pseudobailii and Z. parabailii are capable of mating and sporulating. We previously showed that Z. parabailii regained fertility when one copy of its MAT locus became broken into two parts, causing the allodiploid hybrid to behave as a haploid gamete. In Z. pseudobailii, we find that a very similar process occurred after hybridization, when a deletion of 1.5 kb inactivated one of the two copies of its MAT locus. The half-sibling species Z. parabailii and Z. pseudobailii therefore went through remarkably parallel but independent steps to regain fertility after they were formed by separate interspecies hybridizations.