Bulk segregant analysis reveals the genetic basis of anatural trait variation in fission yeast

Abstract

Although the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is awell-established model organism, studies of natural trait variations in this species remain limited. To assess the feasibility of segregant-pool-based mapping of phenotype-causing genes in natural strains of fission yeast, we investigated the cause of a maltose utilization defect (Mal-) of the S. pombe strain CBS5557 (originally known as Schizosaccharomyces malidevorans). Analyzing the genome sequence of CBS5557 revealed 955 nonconservative missense substitutions, and 61 potential loss-of-function variants including 47 frameshift indels, 13 early stop codons, and 1 splice sitemutation. As a side benefit, our analysis confirmed146 sequence errors in the reference genome and improved annotations of 27genes.Weapplied bulk segregant analysis to map the causal locus of the Mal- phenotype. Through sequencing the segregant pools derived from a cross between CBS5557 and the laboratory strain, we located the locus to within a 2.23-Mb chromosome I inversion found in most S. pombe isolates including CBS5557. To map genes within the inversion region that occupies 18% of the genome, we created a laboratory strain containing the same inversion. Analyzing segregants from a cross between CBS5557 and the inversion-containing laboratory strain narrowed down the locus to a 200-kb interval and led us to identify agl1, which suffers a 5-bp deletion in CBS5557, as the causal gene. Interestingly, loss of agl1 through a 34-kb deletion underlies the Mal- phenotype of another S. pombe strain CGMCC2.1628. This work adapts and validates the bulk segregant analysis method for uncovering trait-gene relationship in natural fission yeast strains.