A FLOW CYTOMETRIC METHOD FOR RAPID SELECTION OF NOVEL INDUSTRIAL YEAST HYBRIDS

We rapidly produced and isolated novel yeast hybrids by using two-colo r flow cytometric cell sorting. We labeled one parent strain with a fl uorescent green stain and the other parent with a fluorescent orange s tain, and hybrids were selected based on their dual orange and green f luorescence. When this technique was applied to the production of hybr ids by traditional mating procedures, more than 96% of the isolates we re hybrids. When it was applied to rare mating, three hybrids were ide ntified among 50 isolates enriched from a population containing 2 x 10 (6) cells. This technology is not dependent on genetic markers and has applications in the development of improved industrial yeast strains.