Domestication drives repeated evolution of sexual-asexual life cycle trade-offs in yeast.

ABSTRACT: For thousands of years, humans have domesticated animals and cultivated crops by managing reproduction and selecting for desirable traits. In contrast, microbial domestication has often occurred unintentionally, and the variation of life cycle as well as its impact on genome evolution remain poorly understood. Here, we systematically examined life cycle variation across a diverse panel of 771 diploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolates from both wild and domesticated lineages. We identified widespread alterations in sexual reproduction, including impairments of sporulation, spore viability, and mating-type switching. These changes led to the emergence of two distinct life cycle strategies, favoring either asexual or sexual reproduction, which were notably enriched in domesticat

SUBMITTER: Becerra-Rodriguez C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12798947 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature