Into the Wild: Exploring Yeast Biodiversity for Better Biofuel

by Leslie Shown (Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center) In the world of biofuels research, the baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae gets a lot of love, with scientists commonly tweaking the yeast’s fermentative qualities to enhance ethanol production. Researchers at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), however, are expanding that focus to a broad range of wild yeasts in the genus Saccharomyces.

“We decided to explore the biodiversity of yeasts,” says David Peris, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Laboratory of Genetics. “We’d like to harness the power of that biodiversity to discover and develop new yeast strains that can better address challenges within the cellulosic biofuels industry.”

More specifically, the researchers are interested in the potential of hybridization – the crossing of two different yeast species to produce hybrids. Researchers recently discovered that interspecies hybridization has played a significant role in the success of beer brewing. And that revelation has biofuels scientists hoping that a similar process could help them address goals of the biofuels industry, such as enhancing yeast tolerance of industrial toxins; encouraging yeast to consume xylose, a difficult-to-ferment plant sugar; and increasing ethanol yield. READ MORE