Comparative genomics is a powerful approach to understand genome evolution
across species. The study of synteny conservation between multiple species
allowed critical conceptual advances on how genomes are physically
reshuffled. However, it is difficult to faithfully reconstruct genome
history from the sole comparison of contemporary genomes because the
architecture and gene content of ancestral genomes are not known. Therefore,
one major and current goal of comparative genomics is to reconstruct
ancestral genomes in order to infer the number and type of rearrangements
that occurred along different lineages. Combining the generation of a high
quality genome dataset covering an entire yeast genus, the development a new
algorithm for reconstructing ancestral genome architecture, and a
comprehensive analysis of gene repertoire evolution, our work provides a
granular view of genome evolution, linking gene content, chromosome
rearrangements and protein divergence into a single evolutionary framework.