The genome of wine yeast Dekkera bruxellensis provides a tool to explore its food-related properties

The yeast . Dekkera/Brettanomyces bruxellensis can cause enormous economic losses in wine industry due to production of phenolic off-flavor compounds. . D. bruxellensis is a distant relative of baker's yeast . Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Nevertheless, these two yeasts are often found in the same habitats and share several food-related traits, such as production of high ethanol levels and ability to grow without oxygen. In some food products, like lambic beer, . D. bruxellensis can importantly contribute to flavor development. We determined the 13.4. Mb genome sequence of the . D. bruxellensis strain Y879 (CBS2499) and deduced the genetic background of several "food-relevant" properties and evolutionary history of this yeast. Surprisingly, we find that this yeast is phylogenetically distant to other food-related yeasts and most related to . Pichia (Komagataella) pastoris, which is an aerobic poor ethanol producer. We further show that the . D. bruxellensis genome does not contain an excess of lineage specific duplicated genes nor a horizontally transferred . URA1 gene, two crucial events that promoted the evolution of the food relevant traits in the . S. cerevisiae lineage. However, . D. bruxellensis has several independently duplicated . ADH and . ADH-like genes, which are likely responsible for metabolism of alcohols, including ethanol, and also a range of aromatic compounds.