PCR amplification of the 3' external transcribed and intergenic spacers of the ribosomal DNA repeat unit in three species of Saccharomyces

Two spacer regions outside the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) transcriptional unit in three species of Saccharomyces, S. cerevisiae, S. carlsbergensis and S. pastorianus, were amplified using the polymerase chain reaction. These regions were composed of the 3' external transcribed spacer (ETS) and the intergenic spacer (IGS). Primers were developed from sequence alignments and by taking the reverse complement of a previously described sequence. The region amplified spanned base position 3110 on the 26S rRNA to base position 27 on the 5S rRNA of S. cerevisiae. Nine of the twelve strains used in this study exhibited different restriction profiles, showing that the spacers are highly variable between species. The results suggest that PCR fingerprinting of the non-coding spacer regions can be used to distinguish between closely related Saccharomyces species and may have potential in DNA profiling of other yeasts.