Genetic variation in aneuploidy prevalence and tolerance across the Saccharomyces cerevisiae phylogeny

Individuals carrying an aberrant number of chromosomes can vary widely in their expression of aneuploidy phenotypes. A major unanswered question is the degree to which an individual’s genetic makeup influences its tolerance of karyotypic imbalance. Here we took a population genetics perspective to investigate the selective forces influencing aneuploidy prevalence in Saccharomyces cerevisiae populations as a model for eukaryotic biology. We analyzed genotypic and phenotypic variation recently published for over 1,000 S. cerevisiae strains spanning dozens of genetically defined clades and ecological associations. Our results show that the prevalence of chromosome gain and loss varies by clade and can be better explained by differences in genetic background than ecology. The phylogenetic context of lineages showing high aneuploidy rates suggests that increased aneuploidy frequency arose multiple times in S. cerevisiae evolution. Separate from aneuploidy frequency, analyzing growth phenotypes reveals that some backgrounds – such as European Wine strains – show fitness costs upon chromosome duplication, whereas other clades with high aneuploidy rates show little evidence of major deleterious effects. Our analysis confirms that chromosome amplification can produce phenotypic benefits that can influence evolutionary trajectories. These results have important implications for understanding genetic variation in aneuploidy prevalence in health, disease, and evolution. ARTICLE SUMMARY Aneuploidy, an imbalance in the normal chromosome copy number, is detrimental during human development; yet individuals show substantial variability in their aneuploidy susceptibility, suggesting the influence of genetic background on aneuploidy tolerance. Scopel et al. employed a population genetic approach to address this question, analyzing over 1,000 published Saccharomyces cerevisiae genomes. The results demonstrate that genetic background has a substantial effect on aneuploidy frequency and cellular tolerance of aneuploidy stress, presenting important new information on the forces that contribute to aneuploidy prevalence. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.