This doctoral thesis, directed by Eladio Barrio and Christina Toft, analyzes through comparative genomics how alternative and little-known species of the genus Saccharomyces with potential industrial interest adapt to their natural environments. The results of the research have been published in the journals Frontiers in Genetics i G3: Gens, Genomes and Genetics. The thesis was defended on May 21, 2021.

The genus Saccharomyces is a fascinating model for evolutionary biology due to its high genetic and phenotypic diversity. Improved sampling efforts over the past decade have led to the isolation ofSaccharomyces species from a wide range of sources worldwide. S. cerevisiaeis probably the best-known eukaryotic system and the dominant organism in many industrial fermentations. Due to new challenges in the wine industry (e.g. the climate crisis and changing customer demands), alternative species of Saccharomyces have recently attracted the attention of researchers as an underexploited biodiversity resource. S. kudriavzeviiand S. uvarumare two promising candidates due to their lower growth temperature, higher glycerol production and different aromatic profiles compared toS. cerevisiae. However, the adaptation mechanisms of these species to their true ecological niches remain unexplored. In this thesis, titled “Comparative genomics to unravel adaptive mechanisms in Saccharomyces”, different molecular mechanisms involved in the adaptation of S. uvarumand S. kudriavzeviiproviding new knowledge about its evolutionary dynamics.

Laura Gutiérrez Macías' thesis has been carried out at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA, CSIC) under the supervision of Eladio Barrio Esparducer (Professor of Genetics at the University of Valencia, UV) and Christina Toft (Senior Scientist at the CSIC, I²SysBio). During the development of this thesis Laura Gutiérrez Macías carried out a research stay in the laboratory of Dr. László Nagy (Institute of Biochemistry, Hungarian Academy of Sciences). The panel was made up of Mireia Coscollà Devís (I²SysBio), Marina Marcet Houben (Barcelona Supercomputing Centre), and Balázs Papp (Institute of Biochemistry, Hungarian Academy of Sciences), who rated the thesis as outstanding.