More than you ever wanted to know about yeast

These little beasts do all the hard work. Share how to keep 'em happy and working hard.

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Galeoturpis
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Re: More than you ever wanted to know about yeast

Post by Galeoturpis »

These are old studies but hopefully answer your questions. my old flat-mate did a pHd in micro and someone sad to him "Hey, you seem smart enough to work on eukaryotes!"
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 2704000220" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
http://www.pnas.org/content/106/7/2136.long" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/4/45" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
There are plenty of genomes published of yeasts , especially S. cerevisiae. There are genetically modified S.cerevisiae which produce omega 3s but I have not seen it in wild types. I don't think that they're auxotrophic; they probably never had the capacity (just like animals!) All minerals and vitamins are considered vital but people don't immediately die from scurvy, rickets, vitamin A blindness, pernicious anaemia or iron deficiency.
LG11
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Re: More than you ever wanted to know about yeast

Post by LG11 »

Hi
Great questions! I will be doing the cell wall next and hopefully will answer some the main questions raised. You will find that the problem (if you can call it that) with yeast, is its ability to adapt to its surroundings. It has so many ways in which to use and process the nutrients it requires. The simple answer to should we put X Y or Z in all boils down to what you want to get out!
Stick with it for now, we are starting to go deeper so hopefully you will begin to understand that with yeast there are a few 'must do's, but mostly you are free to manipulate the little chappy to what you need it to do. Consider this as a breath taking view on just how clever they really are.
We the so called top right hand side of the evolutionary tree, take us out of an atmosphere with oxygen and we die, Yeast can survive in alkali or acid, aerobic or anaerobic conditions. Once we start looking at the must have nutrients for it to survive and the ways in which it can find and use sources of these, you begin to see why what you feed it directly affects what it produces. But there is also a caveat to this, many commercial strains are genetically altered, mostly by breeding etc rather than gene manipulation, but they still have certain genes missing or whatever, so we will look into this deeper. I am pleased that so far no one is being left behind, The next major part might not be until Monday but I will continue.
ANYONE interested in taking part in some experiments pm me, we will start simple and the equipment should not be expensive as much can be done with glass jars etc. I would also love to set up a yeast Gene bank using members yeast and maybe breeding some strain from them for you all to try out. I am working on a cheap simple way for you to get samples of your ferments to me. It might take some organizing and would need one or two capable people in each country to act as a stage post.
But anyone wanting some fun with having a go at being a part of a yeast breeding program let me know. I also have to state that this would be a PERSONAL PROJECT, and have NOTHING to do with my day job.
Ferment_It
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Re: More than you ever wanted to know about yeast

Post by Ferment_It »

Galeoturpis. I disagree- lets talk over in my "journal club" thread I linked above.

LG. If you wanna swing by the journal club and drop a few papers - even if they are behind the pay wall. It might be fun to discuss and summarize some good reads with the community
LG11
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Re: More than you ever wanted to know about yeast

Post by LG11 »

Hi
Just to let you know there is a temporary pause, I have been asked several interesting questions via pm. So I am working on setting up a set of experiments, that way as we go through the next section on the cell wall etc, rather than just post something like X does Y, or read this paper. I am going to also run experiments to show what is going on. I will need to use my home lab for this due to the obviously strict Bio security conditions I am obliged to work under at work.
I have some spare equipment I can put aside exclusively for this, however I need to order a few things and also make a data logger/control unit. While I have a spare phillip harris fermentation system, I dont actually think much of the control unit. So please be patient while I get the soldering iron out and make adjustments, I am also need to order a camera attachment or something similar for my microscope, again I think it prudent not to use the equipment from work or my other microscope with built in camera.
This is purely because work wise I wouldnt be allowed and my main scope is being used in a experiment for a personal paper I am writing. So lets get a list of questions together regarding the cell wall and what happens. For example what happens under normal conditions with the cell wall, how does this change if we stress the yeast? What effect does adding nutrients have etc etc etc.
Consider this your experiment, so you ask the questions and I will answer them and also conduct the experiment/experiments to confirm. I am going to start a new thread at this point, the experiment thread. I will continue with this one and keep it 'Theory based' and informational and keep posting relevant papers as I do now. However the other thread is where we can explore things via experimentation. My intention is actually to have the experiment LIVE and ONLINE.
so members here can log directly into the data logger and maybe a cam or two and interact or observe the experiment. While this is aimed at anyone and everyone the experiments are to actually show those with non science backgrounds things in action. I will finish here at this point regarding the experiment and give more detail in the new thread. My reason for doing this is mostly because I strongly believe new comers learn far better when things are shown live, rather than just reading, so consider this thread the information and theory side and the other a teaching aid you are all welcome to take part in.
LG11
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Re: More than you ever wanted to know about yeast

Post by LG11 »

Hi I havnt gone away, at the moment we are swamped at work doing assay's for distilleries. I finish work for the Christmas Hols soon, so will have 9 days off and will continue here.
LG
warp1
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Re: More than you ever wanted to know about yeast

Post by warp1 »

Glad to see you back LG...love reading your posts. Can't wait until you get back to this topic. Ready to tackle wild yeasts come spring, and definitely want to pursue a yeast farm...even if it's based off comercial varieties.
Dan P.
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Re: More than you ever wanted to know about yeast

Post by Dan P. »

LG11 wrote:
This will be my 16th paper in Nature and brings my publishing total to over 500, I will mention to my boss I am long overdue a new chair!! as mine is falling apart :D
500! Wow, that's like one every month over a forty year career! That's an incredible output!
LG11
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Re: More than you ever wanted to know about yeast

Post by LG11 »

Dan P. wrote:
LG11 wrote:
This will be my 16th paper in Nature and brings my publishing total to over 500, I will mention to my boss I am long overdue a new chair!! as mine is falling apart :D
500! Wow, that's like one every month over a forty year career! That's an incredible output!
It isnt as good as the figures look............... some I confess get published more than once :D, but to be fair science these days means you publish or die, I found at the begging of my career I published prolifically and could get 10-15 papers out of a single project. Then I hit the mid period and got kinda settled with a low rate, now I am at the stage where I am looking at other options mostly in academia and that means my publishing rate has gone up.
Most people think you do an experiment or something and that gives you a single paper, what people dont realize is a single channel of investigation can yield many papers. Also you have what we call the paper patients, this is where medical doctors what to further there career or standing, if you think how many patients they see (I am talking about the Uk and journals like the LANCET here) then you realize if they up the notes and publish they can get a good number out, publishing is a numbers game but you have to watch the ratio of where you publish, too many in mickey mouse journals harms your credibility however just publishing in top journals is not an option as you wouldnt get published often. Its ultimately a game that is played in order to advance a career, if I go into academia full time then I would be expected to publish at least 15-20 papers a year (this dosnt apply to every field but certainly does in mine at my stage of career), the next wrung on the ladder for me would be to go for a professorship.
Snowe
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Re: More than you ever wanted to know about yeast

Post by Snowe »

Subbing to this thread, this is an amazing read.
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contrahead
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Re: More than you ever wanted to know about yeast

Post by contrahead »

I guess LG11 quit Home distiller two years ago. It looks as if #57 was his last post anyway.

I ran across the following about wasp & yeast (in my e-mail) and came here to drop it in this thread. Wonder if its the same guy?

N.C. State scientists brew beer from wasps’ yeast
Omnia mea mecum porto
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