• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.111-118
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• 2011

For the strain improvement of the industrial polyploid yeast strain through hybridization and protoplast fusion, a dominant selection marker other than a recessive marker such as the auxotrophic marker was required for the selection of the resulting hybrids. In the present investigation, the aureobasidin A resistant gene was tested in relation to whether it can be used as the dominant selectable marker for the isolation of hybrids of the yeast Saccharomyces. The plasmid pAUR112, carrying the gene responsible for resistance to aureobasidin A, was introduced into the haploid yeast strain K114/YIp. From the rare-mating between polyploid C6 and haploid K114/YIp carrying pAUR112, many hybrids were obtained from the agar medium containing 0.5 ${\mu}g$/ml of aureobasidin A. The hybrids exhibited characteristics derived from both of the parental strains; and the cell sizes of the hybrids were larger than those of the parental strains. These results showed that the aureobasidin A resistant gene could be successfully used as the dominant selectable marker for the isolation of yeast hybrids resulting from rare-mating.