Beyond Beer: The Many Uses of Yeast

When I watched the videos on the syllabus for this week, I was surprised to learn that yeast was so important in the discovery of mutated prion proteins. I had not really heard of the importance of yeast in scientific experiments before, but after some investigating I discovered the many benefits of yeast to scientific research. As stated in the video, yeast cells are very similar to human cells. Like human cells, yeast cells have eukaryotic structure. This means that its cells contain a nucleus and other organelles enclosed within membranes. Yeast has about 6,000 genes, while the human genome has about 25,000. Yeast and human cells do share many genes though, so if you wanted to test how a certain human gene responds to something, you can often test yeast cells first. One of the greatest characteristics of yeast cells that make them perfect for scientific experimentation is how quickly they grow. Human cells divide a rate of about once every twelve hours, yeast divides about once every two hours. Therefore, scientists can complete experiments much faster with yeast cells than with human cells.
Yeast has been used in many other experiments besides the research on prion proteins. NASA has sent a satellite into orbit carrying a laboratory full of yeast to tests whether certain organisms are more resistant to drugs in outer space. Outside of the scientific field, yeast will always have a place in my heart and at my table as both bread and beer.