The evolutionary impact of sexual reproduction across 5,000 generations of yeast and its application to engineer ethanol tolerant strains

• Grant number: 15/09562-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2015
• End date: May 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Molecular Genetics and Genetics of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Jeferson Gross
• Grantee: Ewerton Rohwedder
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/15743-9 - The evolutionary impact of sexual reproduction across 5,000 generations of yeast and its application to engineer ethanol tolerant strains, AP.BIOEN.JP

Abstract

Seven yeast populations (4 sexual and 3 clonal) will be propagated against a gradient of increasing ethanol concentration in the growth medium. The internship student will help with the routine of cultivation, which will include periodic fitness and competition assays. The student will be introduced to genomic techniques used for comparative genetic analysis of sexual and clonal yeast populations. The mutations found will be further inspected by molecular and physiologic methods. In this context, the student will be assigned a particular mutant allele as his main object of study. The goal is to introduce the student to several aspects of modern genomics and molecular genetics, aiming at shaping the education of future researchers in those fields.