Origin of Lactose Fermentation in Kluyveromyces lactis by Interspecies Transfer of a Neo-functionalized Gene Cluster during Domestication

Humans have used yeasts to make cheese and kefir for millennia, but the ability to ferment the milk sugar lactose is found in only a few yeast species, of which the foremost is Kluyveromyces lactis [1]. Two genes, LAC12 (lactose permease) and LAC4 (lactase), are sufficient for lactose uptake and hydrolysis to glucose and galactose [2]. Here, we show that these genes have a complex evolutionary history in the genus Kluyveromyces that is likely the result of human activity during domestication. We show that the ancestral Lac12 was bifunctional, able to import both lactose and cellobiose into the cell. These disaccharides were then hydrolyzed by Lac4 in the case of lactose or Cel2 in the case of cellobiose. A second cellobiose transporter, Cel1, was also present ancestrally. In the K. lactis lineage, the ancestral LAC12 and LAC4 were lost and a separate upheaval in the sister species K. marxianus resulted in loss of CEL1 and quadruplication of LAC12. One of these LAC12 genes became neofunctionalized to encode an efficient lactose transporter capable of supporting fermentation, specifically in dairy strains of K. marxianus, where it formed a LAC4-LAC12-CEL2 gene cluster, although another remained a cellobiose transporter. Then, the ability to ferment lactose was acquired very recently by K. lactis var. lactis by introgression of LAC12 and LAC4 on a 15-kb subtelomeric region from a dairy strain of K. marxianus. The genomic history of the LAC genes shows that strong selective pressures were imposed on yeasts by early dairy farmers.