Genetic variation of the repeated MAL loci in natural populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces paradoxus.

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the gene functions required to ferment the disaccharide maltose are encoded by the MAL loci. Any one of five highly sequence homologous MAL loci identified in various S. cerevisiae strains (called MAL1, 2, 3, 4 and 6) is sufficient to ferment maltose. Each is a complex of three genes encoding maltose permease, maltase and a transcription activator. This family of loci maps to telomere-linked positions on different chromosomes and most natural strains contain more than one MAL locus. A number of naturally occurring, mutant alleles of MAL1 and MAL3 have been characterized which lack one or more of the gene functions encoded by the fully functional MAL loci. Loss of these gene functions appears to have resulted from mutation and/or rearrangement within the locus. Studies to date concentrated on the standard maltose fermenting strains of S. cerevisiae available from the Berkeley Yeast Stock Center collection. In this report we extend our genetic analysis of the MAL loci to a number of maltose fermenting and nonfermenting natural strains of S. cerevisiae and Saccharomyces paradoxus. No new MAL loci were discovered but several new mutant alleles of MAL1 were identified. The evolution of this gene family is discussed.