Mitochondrial inheritance as an important parameter for the rational design of synthetic yeast polyploids
Synthetic allopolyploidization is a powerful strategy for generating strains with novel industrially relevant traits. During the design of select, hybridize, evolved and learn cycle, the mitochondrial inheritance is considered neutral and most studies overcome their phenotypic impact. Here, we generated 168 synthetic allotetraploid strains representing all pairwise parental combinations of eight…
Synthetic allopolyploidization has proven to be an effective method for creating strains with unique industrial traits. Researchers generated 168 synthetic allotetraploid strains by combining all possible parental pairs from eight different Saccharomyces species. They then systematically controlled the inheritance of mitochondria in these crosses.
When exposed to 31 different environmental conditions relevant to biotechnology, ~50% of the allotetraploids displayed mid-parent heterosis, or improved performance compared to the average of their parents. In roughly 25% of the tested conditions, the researchers observed hybrid vigor, especially in crosses between Saccharomyces arboricola and Saccharomyces mikatae.
However, the allotetraploids proved to be highly unstable and rapidly sporulated. The researchers found that environmental conditions had the largest impact on the strains, followed by the interaction between the type of mitochondria inherited and the environmental conditions. Surprisingly, even though the mitochondrial inheritance alone showed small effects, it still significantly impacted 42% of the tested conditions.
This finding highlights the crucial role of mitochondrial inheritance as a key factor in determining the overall performance of allopolyploid strains, and it should be taken into account when designing industrial strains through synthetic means.
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