Enrichment for auxotrophic mutants in Saccharomyces cerevisiae using the cell wall inhibitor, echinocandin B.

Echinocandin B has been shown to inhibit fungal cell wall synthesis. This report describes the use of echinocandin B to enrich for nutritional auxotrophs in a mutagenized strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Up to 20-fold enrichment levels for total auxotrophs were achieved after a single round of treatment with echinocandin; this level of enrichment is the highest of all procedures for which a specific mutant strain is not required.