Figure 1

Bulk segregant analysis for mapping genomic regions linked to a phenotype of interest in yeast. A: A parent displaying the phenotypic trait of interest (superior parent) is crossed with a reference strain lacking the trait (inferior parent). B: The resulting heterozygous diploid strain is then sporulated to generate haploid segregants. C: Segregating offspring carry a mosaic of genetic material derived from both parents (red and blue segments) due to the recombination events in meiosis. After phenotyping, the subset of segregants displaying the trait of the superior parent is selected. D: Genomic DNA extracted from the pooled selected segregants is submitted to whole-genome sequence analysis. Polymorphic genomic regions (marker sites) are identified that allow distinguishing between the parental variants. Counting for each marker site how many variants originate from the superior versus the inferior parent allows determining the variant frequency in the pool for each marker site. Regions linked to the phenotype of interest are expected to originate predominantly from the superior parent (black boxed region). The principle of BSA with diploid organisms is similar, but usually inbred (homozygous) lines are used as parents and two generations are needed to observe segregation of the phenotype.