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Yeast chromosome numbers minimized using genome editing

Genome-editing approaches have been used to fuse 16 yeast chromosomes to produce yeast strains with only 1 or 2 chromosomes. Surprisingly, this fusion has little effect on cell fitness.
  1. Gianni Liti

    1. Gianni Liti is at the University of Côte d’Azur, CNRS, INSERM, IRCAN, 06107 Nice, France.

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The genomes of nucleus-bearing organisms are divided into linear chromosomes. The number of chromosomes ranges from one to hundreds across species. But why is there such variation? Do specific chromosome numbers hold an advantage for particular species? In two papers in Nature, Shao et al.1 and Luo et al.2 independently manipulate the genome of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae by systematically fusing chromosomes, enabling the researchers to explore the consequences of chromosome-number reduction.

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Nature 560, 317-318 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05309-4

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