Telomere behavior in a hybrid yeast

Telomeres and the protein/RNA complexes involved in maintaining them are rapidly evolving systems across eukaryotes. Using two Saccharomyces species, S. cerevisiae and S. bayanus, we provide evidence that the telomere systems of these two closely related yeasts have evolved significantly apart and that the gene in one species can not maintain the set-point of telomere length of the other species in the hybrid. Each array has co-hybridized RNA vs DNA for the indicated species (BB9=S. bayanus, CC5=S. cerevisiae) or hybrid (BC11). The cultures for RNA preparation were grown to midlog phase at the indicated temperature.