Localization of yeast glucoamylase genes by PFGE and OFAGE

Chromosomes of two closely related yeast strains, the amylolytic Saccharomyces diastaticus and the non-amylolytic Saccharomyces cerevisiae, were resolved by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and orthological field alteration gel electrophoresis (OFAGE). Electrophoretic karyotypes of these two strains are identical. Sixteen cloned Saccharomyces genes of known chromosomal location were used to identify individual chromosomes by Southern hybridization analyses. The Southern blots were reprobed with a cloned fragment of the STA2 glucoamylase gene of S. diastaticus. STA2 exhibits homology to STA1 and STA3 as well as the sporulation-specific glucoamylase (SGA) gene from both Saccharomyces strains. The three unlinked, homologous genes, STA1 (DEX2, MAL5), STA2 (DEX1) and STA3 (DEX3) encoding the extracellular glucoamylase isozymes GAI, GAII and GAIII in S. diastaticus were then assigned to chromosomes IV, II and XIV, respectively. The SGA gene, encoding an intracellular glucoamylase in both S. diastaticus and S. cerevisiae, was assigned to chromosome IX. Electrophoretic mapping of the STA and SGA genes is at present the only way to localize these genes, since glucoamylase repressor gene(s) (STA10, INH1 and/or IST2) are present in most laboratory strains of S. cerevisiae and the SGA phenotype is only detectable during sporulation.