Differential chromosome control of ploidy in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, aneuploidy is well tolerated and stable. We analysed whether the induced loss of a disomic chromosome favours endo-reduplication of the remaining chromosome or the cells prefer to retain the acquired euploidy. Chromosome VIII disomes and trisomes were tagged with GFP (green fluorescent protein), DsRed (red fluorescent protein) and BFP (blue fluorescent protein) integrated at the thr1 locus, using our newly designed STIK (specific targeted integration of kanamycin resistance-associated, non-selectable DNA) plasmid system. A knockout cassette for centromere 8 was constructed with the hygromycin-B marker, which was transformed into the strains. The transformants lost sensitivity to hygromycin, thereby indicating the event of centromere replacement. Quantitative PCR and Southern analysis were performed for chromosome VIII copy number determination by probing the markers located on both the right (ARG4 and THR1) and left (GUT1) arm whereas, for chromosome V, markers such as HIS1, located on right arm, and URA3, on left arm, were used. The loss of an extranumerary chromosome VIII in a disome and trisome leads to stable euploidy. Furthermore, in a wild-type diploid, deletion of a copy of chromosome VIII, leads to monosomy, and restoration of euploidy after 22 generations, by reduplication of chromosome VIII, and consequent loss of heterozygosis (LOH). However, chromosome V knockouts in chromosome VIII trisome, still showed LOH and duplication of chromosome V, with return to the original aneuploid condition. These results suggest that yeast cells could control the integrity of their genetic complement acting at the individual chromosome level.