A Complex Appetite for Sugar: A study of the fermentation rate between monosaccharides and polysaccharides with Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Abstract

Our team wanted to find which sugar, monosaccharides or polysaccharides, would increase the fermentation rate of Saccharomyces cerevisiae more. We hypothesized that the monosaccharides would have a greater effect of increasing the fermentation rate on the Baker’s yeast more than the polysaccharides. This hypothesis is derived based on the mechanism that monosaccharides are a simple sugar and are easier to break down. In our experiment, dextrose served as our monosaccharide and starch served as our polysaccharide. Each test group was contained inside a 250 mL biochamber, while each solution consisted of deionized water, sodium phosphate, our yeast, and the chosen carbohydrate; no carbohydrate was added to the control. In total we tested three experimental groups, each trial for five minutes; three trials were awarded to each group. An ethanol sensor was used to collect our data, which was recorded using the LoggerPro software (French 2020). After analyzing the data collected, we found the evidence to be inconclusive. We propose that the results of our experiment may have been influenced by the presence of oxygen which may have contaminated our solution meant for an anaerobic process. If we were to do this experiment again, we would make multiple changes ranging from the time allowed for our trials to the equipment used.