The Effect of High Amounts of Salt of Yeast’s Respiration Rate

Abstract

Upon reading multiple articles on JIBI about the effects of different substances on yeast, our group was intrigued by how the growth of yeast would be affected by increasing amounts of salt. Since ordinarily when working with yeast, sugar is a substance used to help the yeast grow, we wanted to investigate how salt would inhibit the growth of yeast. In a different study similar to this one, it was shown that knowing about the genes, metabolic pathways, and the regulatory circuits shaping the Z. rouxii sugar and salt tolerance is a prerequisite to develop effective strategies for fermentation control, optimization of food starter culture, and prevention of food spoilage. (Dakal 2014). This led us to be interested in what a high amount of salt would do to the amount of respiration produced by the baker’s yeast. To measure this, we used carbon dioxide probes to graph the amount of yeast respiration as the amount of salt increased, from 30 grams to 60 grams to 90 grams. As the amount of salt increased, the carbon dioxide produced increased per trial. Our hypothesis was supported eventually since the amount of CO2 increased and then flat lined after the yeast died off.