Expression patterns in stress conditions of 4 closely related yeast species from the Saccharomyces sensu stricto complex

We characterize the genome-wide transcription response of four related yeast species and two strains to equivalent environmental stresses. Keywords: Comparative analysis of gene expression across species. We chose four yeast species, three species are represented by a single strain (S. cerevisiae, S. kudriavzevii and S. mikatae) and one species (S. paradoxus) is represented by two strains. The five different cell types were subjected to five environmental stresses: heat shock, oxidative stress (H2O2), growth on glycerol, nitrogen starvation and DNA damage (MMS). In each experiment, cells were grown to mid log-phase in rich media and were then subjected to the particular stress. The same growth media was used for all species. The genome-wide transcription profile of each culture was measured at six subsequent time points, from 10 to 90 minutes after the onset of the perturbation (one day for nitrogen starvation). At each time point, gene expression levels were measured relative to a reference (same culture before transfer to stressful media).