Origin, Regulation, and Fitness Effect of Chromosomal Rearrangements in the Yeast

Chromosomal rearrangements comprise unbalanced structural variations resulting in gain or loss of DNA copy numbers, as well as balanced events including translocation and inversion that are copy number neutral, both of which contribute to phenotypic evolution in organisms. The exquisite genetic assay and gene editing tools available for the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae facilitate deep exploration of the mechanisms underlying chromosomal rearrangements. We discuss here the pathways and influential factors of chromosomal rearrangements in S. cerevisiae. Several methods have been developed to generate on-demand chromosomal rearrangements and map the breakpoints of rearrangement events. Finally, we highlight the contributions of chromosomal rearrangements to drive phenotypic evolution in various S. cerevisiae strains. Given the evolutionary conservation of DNA replication and recombination in organisms, the knowledge gathered in the small genome of yeast can be extended to the genomes of higher eukaryotes.