Fundamental questions regarding the minimal requirements for life have prompted scientists to embark on top-down efforts to reduce microbial genomes to the minimum set of genes and proteins necessary to sustain cell survival and division. While these efforts are generally focused on small, prokaryotic genomes, Saccharomyces cerevisiae , a popular industrial and model organism, has a typical eukaryotic genome characterized by a high genetic redundancy.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, whose evolutionary past includes a whole-genome duplication event, is characterised by a mosaic genome configuration with substantial apparent genetic redundancy. This apparent redundancy raises questions about the evolutionary driving force for genomic fixation of minor paralogs and complicates modular and combinatorial metabolic engineering strategies. While isoenzymes might be important in specific environments, they could be dispensable in controlled laboratory or industrial contexts. The present study explores the extent to which the genetic complexity of the central carbon metabolism (CCM) in S. cerevisiae, here defined as the combination of glycolysis, pentose phosphate pathway, tricarboxylic acid cycle and a limited number of related pathways and reactions, can be reduced by elimination of (iso)enzymes without major negative impacts on strain physiology. Cas9-mediated, groupwise deletion of 35 from the 111 genes yielded a minimal CCM strain, which despite the elimination of 32 % of CCM-related proteins, showed only a minimal change in phenotype on glucose-containing synthetic medium in controlled bioreactor cultures relative to a congenic reference strain. Analysis under a wide range of other growth and stress conditions revealed remarkably few phenotypic changes of the reduction of genetic complexity. Still, a well-documented context-dependent role of GPD1 in osmotolerance was confirmed. The minimal CCM strain provides a model system for further research into genetic redundancy of yeast genes and a platform for strategies aimed at large-scale, combinatorial remodelling of yeast CCM.