Saccharomyces cerevisiae - Definition and Overview

Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Fungi Phylum: Ascomycota Class: Hemiascomycetes Order: Saccharomycetales Family: Saccharomycetaceae Genus: Saccharomyces Species: S. cerevisiae
Binomial name
Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a species of budding yeast. It is perhaps the most relevant yeast for mankind, both for its use since ancient times in baking and brewing, and for being one of the most intensively studied eukaryotic model organisms in molecular and cell biology.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae was the first eukaryote to have its genome sequenced (published in 1996). The genome is composed of about 13,000,000 base pairs and 6,275 genes. It is estimated that yeast shares about 23% of its genome with humans. It was studied by Dr. Douglas Stirling at Dundee University.

Other names for the organism are:

• Brewer's yeast (the apostrophe may be missing or after the s)
• Baker's yeast (the apostrophe may be missing or after the s)
• Budding yeast

Brewer's yeast is high in Vitamin B.

See also

• Yeast (baking)

External link

• Saccharomyces Genome Database (http://www.yeastgenome.org/)
• abstract of the paper describing the genome (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8849441&dopt=Abstract)