Saccharomyces cerevisiae sugar utilization

For much work on chemical activities of micro-organisms, it is important to use strains having known relevant genetical characteristics. Unfortunately, however, strains of only two species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe, have as yet been subjected to extensive genetic analysis, and neither species can utilize a wide range of exogenous sugars. 

Kuyper, M., Toirkens, M. J., Diderich, J. A., Winkler, A. A., Van Dijken, J. R, Pronk, J. T. (2005). Evolutionary Engineering of mixed-sugar utilization by a xylose-fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain. FEMS Yeast Research, 5, 925-934. 

Genetically Modified Organisms. Traditionally, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is used in industrial ethanol fermentation however, S. cerevisiae is not able to utilize pentoses, which present a significant fraction of the sugars present in lignocellulosic material. 

Madhavan A, Tamalampudi S, Srivastava A, Fukuda H, Bisaria VS, Kondo A. (2009a). Alcoholic fermentation of xylose and mixed sugars using recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae engineered for xylose utilization. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol, 82, 1037-1047. 

As described by Vaughan-Martini and Martini (1998a), Saccharomyces appear microscopically as globose or ovoidal cells with multilateral budding and possibly pseudohyphae (Fig. 1.4). The yeast forms one to four ascospores, which are smooth and ellipsoidal. Colonies appear smooth, usually flat, and occasionally raised and opaque. The two primary species found in wines, S. bay anus and S. cerevisiae (anamorph Candida robusta), ferment glucose, sucrose, and raffinose and assimilate glucose, sucrose, maltose, raffinose, and ethanol but not nitrate. Saccharomyces can not utilize five-carbon sugars (e.g., pentoses). 

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