Tools for the study of genome rearrangements in laboratory and industrial yeast strains.

In order to investigate the extent of genome rearrangements in laboratory and industrial yeast strains, a set of plasmids, containing ca. 300 bp fragments from highly conserved genes from S. cerevisiae, has been constructed. We chose three unique PCR products, each from a single gene, per chromosome: one from close to the centromere, and one from each chromosome end. Using these plasmids as probes to hybridize a Southern blot from a pulsed-field gel electrophoresis separation of the 16 yeast chromosomes, it is possible to identify large chromosomal rearrangements such as reciprocal translocations. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.