Discovering and genotyping genomic structural variations by yeast genome synthesis and inducible evolution.

Genomic structural variations (SVs) promote the evolution of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and play an important role in phenotypic diversities. Yeast genomic structures can be remodeled by design and bottom-up synthesis. The synthesis of yeast genome creates novel copy number variations (CNVs) and SVs and develops new strategies to discover gene functions. Further, an inducible evolution system SCRaMbLE, consisted of 3,932 loxPsym sites, was incorporated on synthetic yeast genome. SCRaMbLE enables genomic rearrangements at will and rapidly generates chromosomal number variations, and massive SVs under customized conditions. The impacts of genetic variations on phenotypes can be revealed by genome analysis and chromosome restructuring. Yeast genome synthesis and SCRaMbLE provide a new research paradigm to explore the genotypic mechanisms of phenotype diversities, and can be used to improve biological traits and optimize industrial chassis. © FEMS 2020.