Pour Some Sugar on Yeast: How Different Sugar Complexities Affect the CO2 Output of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Yeast plays a vital role in a variety of different processes such as beer making and bread making, as well as biofuel processing. Yeast breaks down sugar compounds in order to increase the production of CO2, and therefore fermentation, and ethanol. We hypothesized that monosaccharides, such as corn sugar, in comparison to polysaccharides (starch) and disaccharides (sucrose), would increase the production of CO2 the most in baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) because of its simple compound that is easy for the yeast to break down. In order to test our hypothesis, we set up our experimental and control groups and measured their CO2 outputs. We found our hypothesis to be supported as the monosaccharide increased CO2 production more compared to the polysaccharide and disaccharide. This discovery can help companies, such as Acme baking & brewing, to produce their products more efficiently.