Sugary goodness and the effects of sucrose on the metabolic rate of Baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)

Abstract

Baker’s yeast, or Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is a popular organism used in many industries, from making wine to baking bread. Many studies are done with sugars to locate the best input to output ratio, and in this case, the input of sucrose to the output of CO2, which we predict will be higher with a higher sucrose concentration. Fermentation is a process that does not use oxygen and uses sugar to produce ethanol and CO2, and usually, more sugar will produce more CO2. We tested this by doing 3 trials per sucrose concentration and measuring the CO2 production for each concentration. We used a 2% sucrose solution as our control group, and 1% and 5% sucrose solutions to test our hypothesis. The 2% sucrose solution produced an average of 178.4 ppm per minute. The 5% sucrose solution produced higher levels of CO2 than the 2% sucrose solution, with an average of 209.2 ppm/minute. The 1% sucrose solution produced overall lower levels of CO2, with an average of 173.9 ppm/minute. Overall, higher sucrose solutions produced higher levels of CO2. With support for our hypothesis, our data can be used in further studies, especially in comparing the effectiveness of sucrose to other sugars in yeast.