A trait syndrome ties cell morphology to glycolysis across the yeast subphylum.

Co-variation of traits provides fundamental insights into constraints governing their evolution. An inverse correlation between glucose uptake rates (GURs) and cell surface area-to-volume (SA:V) ratios across 11 yeast species was recently reported. Here, we expand the analysis to 282 species to assess the generalizability of this correlation across Saccharomycotina yeasts and the contribution of shared evolutionary history to the co-variation of these traits. Using phylogenetic regression models, we found extracellular acidification rates (ECARs, used as a proxy for GURs) were weakly, but significantly, correlated with SA:V across Saccharomycotina. ECARs were also correlated with genome sizes and growth rates. Our findings support the reported correlation between GURs and SA:V ratios, but suggest other associated traits, including genome sizes. Specifically, yeasts that consume glucose faster tend to have lower SA:V, faster growth rates, and larger genomes, suggesting a trait syndrome governing several metabolic, genomic, and morphological traits across the yeast subphylum.