Last but Not Yeast: How Sugar Complexities Affect CO2 Production in Yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

In our experiment we tested the effect of complexities of sugars on yeast growth by measuring the amount of carbon dioxide the yeast produced. Our test was designed to explore whether glucose, sucrose, honey, and artificial sugar would differently affect the overall growth rate of yeast.  We measured this by making solutions of 0.25% yeast, 2.0% sugar, and 97.75% water, with a negligible amount of 80 microliters Sodium Phosphate. After calculating the CO₂ output of each solution for five minute intervals, our results concluded that the honey produced the most CO₂, meaning the yeast would grow at the fastest rate in a solution with honey. This result was unexpected since the honey was a polysaccharide, which we predicted would take longer to break down as it is more complex than glucose, sucrose or artificial sweetener.