Rate of Yeast Fermentation Production of Differing Carbohydrates: Monosaccharides vs Disaccharides

Abstract

Numerous experiments have been done to look at the rate of fermentation of glycolysis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is a type of yeast, and different carbohydrates. This led us to wonder if the difference of monosaccharide or disaccharide solutions affect the process of fermentation. Our hypothesis stated, monosaccharides of glucose and fructose in honey will metabolize and produce CO₂ faster than a disaccharide solution of glucose and fructose in refined sucrose because monosaccharides are already broken down into smaller sugar units. We tested this by having a positive control group of glucose and a negative control group of water in the yeast recipe from the lab manual directions. We ran three trials comparing the rate of carbon dioxide production for the four solutions. We predicted the monosaccharide solution will have a higher metabolic rate; however, statistically our hypothesis and prediction were wrong. We found that statistically speaking, solutions of monosaccharides and disaccharides are about the same.