Yeast

Yeast is a group of single-celled (unicellular) fungi a few species of which are commonly used to leaven bread and ferment alcoholic beverages. Most yeasts belong to the division Ascomycota. A few yeasts, such as Candida albicans can cause infection in humans. More than one-thousand species of yeasts have been described. The most commonly used yeast is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which was domesticated for wine, bread and beer production thousands of years ago. See Yeast (baking).

Yeast physiology can be either obligately aerobic or facultatively fermentative. There is no known obligately anaerobic yeast. In the absence of oxygen, fermentative yeasts produce their energy by converting sugars into carbon dioxide and ethanol (alcohol). In brewing, the ethanol is bottled, while in baking the carbon dioxide raises the bread, and the ethanol evaporates.

An example with glucose as the substrate is

C₆H₁₂O₆ (glucose) →2C₂H₅OH + 2CO₂

Yeasts can reproduce asexually through budding or sexually through the formation of ascospores. During asexual reproduction a new bud grows out of the parent yeast when the condition is right, then after the bud reaches an adult size, it separates from the parent yeast. Under low nutrient conditions, yeasts that are capable of sexual reproduction will form ascospores. Yeasts that are not capable of going through the full sexual cycle are classified in the genus Candida.

Yeasts for leavening bread may be produced commercially or caught from the environment. Many yeasts can be isolated from sugar-rich environmental samples. Some good examples include fruits and berries (such as grapes, apples or peaches), exudates from plants (such as plant saps or cacti). Some yeasts are found in association with insects.

The use of potatoes, water from potato boiling, eggs, or sugar in a bread dough accelerates the growth of yeasts. Salt and fats such as butter slow yeast growth down. A common medium used for the cultivation of yeasts is called potato dextrose agar (PDA) or potato dextrose broth. Potato extract is made by autoclaving cut-up potatoes with water for 5 to 10 minutes and then decanting off the broth. Dextrose (glucose) is then added (10 g/L), and the medium is sterilized by autoclaving.

Yeast fermentations comprise the oldest and largest application of microbial technology. They are used for beer and wine fermentations and bread production. Beer brewers classify yeasts as top-fermenting and bottom-fermenting. This distinction was introduced by the Dane Emil Christian Hansen.

Top-fermenting yeasts (so-called because they float to the top of the beer) can produce higher alcohol concentrations and prefer higher temperatures. An example is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, known to brewers as ale yeast. They produce fruitier, sweeter, real ale type beers. Bottom-fermenting yeasts ferment more sugars leaving a crisper taste and work well at low temperatures. An example is Saccharomyces uvarum, formerly known as Saccharomyces carlsbergensis. They are used in producing lager-type beers. Brewers of wheat beers often use varieties of Torulaspora delbrueckii.

Winemakers use a variety of different yeasts depending on the type of wine and the condition of the grapes. Too high a sugar or alcohol concentration slows the growth of yeast, so for very ripe grapes with lots of sugar he or she would use a yeast tolerant of those conditions. If the yeast dies before all the fermentable sugar has been converted to alcohol, the result is a "stuck" fermentation. Some yeast is chosen because it tends to develop certain aromas, such as the distinctive "banana" smells of Beaujolais from Georges Duboeuf. Wild yeast are naturally present on the skins of grapes, so grape juice will spontaneously ferment unless the wild yeast are arrested by cold temperature or sulfates. Depending on the strain of indigenous yeast, the result may be unpalatable or possibly more complex than if a single cultured strain were used. In general, natural yeasts are riskier than cultured, and tend to be used by tradition-oriented, Old World-style winemakers.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is also known as budding or baker's yeast. It is used as a model organism by biologists studying genetics and molecular biology (in particular the cell cycle) because it is easy to culture but as a eukaryote, it shares the complex internal cell structure of plants and animals.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae was the first eukaryotic genome that was completely sequenced. The yeast genome database [1] (http://www.yeastgenome.org/) is highly annotated and remains a very important tool for developing basic knowledge about the function and organization of eukaryotic cell genetics and physiology. Another important S. cerevisiae database is maintained by the Munich Information Center for Protein Sequences [2] (http://mips.gsf.de/genre/proj/yeast/index.jsp).

External links

• The yeast genome database (http://www.yeastgenome.org/)
• Munich Information Center for Protein Sequences (http://mips.gsf.de/genre/proj/yeast/index.jsp)cs:Kvasinka

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