Complex Ancestries of Lager-Brewing Hybrids Were Shaped by Standing Variation in the Wild Yeast Saccharomyces eubayanus.

ABSTRACT: Lager-style beers constitute the vast majority of the beer market, and yet, the genetic origin of the yeast strains that brew them has been shrouded in mystery and controversy. Unlike ale-style beers, which are generally brewed with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, lagers are brewed at colder temperatures with allopolyploid hybrids of Saccharomyces eubayanus x S. cerevisiae. Since the discovery of S. eubayanus in 2011, additional strains have been isolated from South America, North America, Australasia, and Asia, but only interspecies hybrids have been isolated in Europe. Here, using genome sequence data, we examine the relationships of these wild S. eubayanus strains to each other and to domesticated lager strains. Our results support the existence of a relatively low-diversity (π = 0.00197) lin

SUBMITTER: Peris D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4934787 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature