Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Description and significance

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of today’s most widely used yeasts. This unicellular eukaryote plays a key role in the fermentation processes which produce alcoholic beverages and bread. For this reason, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is otherwise referred to as Brewer’s yeast and Baker’s yeast. Nutritional yeast is composed of the deactivated form of this species, which is also the main component of yeast extract. These nutritional supplements are rich in protein and B-complex vitamins. Nutritional yeast is a complete protein, as it contains substantial amounts of all of the essential amino acids. This fungal species provides quite substantial nourishment in these products, but it also exists in smaller concentrations in many common everyday products. S. cerevisiae is a component of beer and wine, as its fermentation produces these liquids. Bread and other leavened baked products contain this yeast, without which rising wouldn’t occur.

Because S. cerevisiae has been used so widely, scientists have studied it closely. This single-celled organism is abundant in nature, as it grows on the skin of grapes and other fruits. It can grow and reproduce on the surface of many sugars, which makes it easy to culture. The ease of attaining and culturing this species allows for its vast studies which have been conducted. Due to its thorough investigation, this yeast was the first eukaryote to have its genome completely sequenced.