Genome-scale characterization of wild yeasts reveals cryptic diversity and population structure across three genera

The authors sequenced a representative panel of wild yeasts spanning Saccharomyces, Schizosaccharomyces, and Lachancea using Oxford Nanopore long-read whole-genome sequencing, integrating the isolates into published reference datasets. Whole-genome analyses revealed cryptic diversity, including interspecific gene flow and mixed cultures that traditional barcoding cannot resolve. The study provides a more detailed picture of population structure across these ecologically and industrially important genera, with implications for yeast strain discovery, bioprospecting, and evolutionary biology. Future work may expand these methods to broader environmental sampling and functional genomics.