Transgenic Expression of a Toxin-Coding Killer Virus of the Yeast Zygosaccharomyces bailii in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Genetic Evidence for a Possible Function of “Cryptic” Mycoviruses in the Evolution of Their Hosts

The killer toxin-secreting yeast Zygosaccharomyces bailii 412 contains two cytoplasmically inherited double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) viruses (ZbV-L, ZbV-M) responsible for the expression of a killer phenotype in its infected host. While ZbV-L functions as a classical helpervirus by providing capsid (cap) and RNA polymerase functions (cap/pol) necessary for packaging and replication of both viruses, M-dsRNA-containing killer viruses (ZbV-M) are satellites of ZbV-L that contain the genetic information for toxin production only. Both viruses were shown to be sufficient to confer the Z. bailii killer phenotype upon transfected spheroplasts of a S. cerevisiae non-killer strain, resulting in toxin-se…