What
Is Yeast?
Yeast are a group of
unicellular fungi a few species of which are commonly used to leaven
bread and ferment alcoholic beverages. Most yeasts belong to the
division Ascomycota. A few yeasts, such as Candida albicans can
cause infection in humans. More than one-thousand species of yeasts
have been described. The most commonly used yeast is Saccharomyces
cerevisiae, which was domesticated for wine, bread and beer
production thousands of years ago. See Yeast.
Yeast physiology can
be either obligately aerobic or facultatively fermentative. There is
no known obligately anaerobic yeast. In the absence of oxygen,
fermentative yeasts produce their energy by converting sugars into
carbon dioxide and ethanol (alcohol). In brewing, the ethanol is
used, while in baking the carbon dioxide raises the bread and the
ethanol evaporates.
An example with glucose as the substrate is:
C6H12O6 (glucose) →2C2H5OH
+ 2CO2 Yeasts can reproduce asexually through budding or sexually
through the formation of ascospores. During asexual reproduction a
new bud grows out of the parent yeast when the condition is right,
then after the bud reaches an adult size, it separates from the
parent yeast. Under low nutrient conditions, yeasts that are
capapable of sexual reproduction will form ascospores. Yeasts that
are not capable of going through the full sexual cycle are
classified in the genus Candida.
Top-fermenting yeasts (so-called because they float to the top of
the beer) can produce higher alcohol concentrations and prefer
higher temperatures. An example is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, known
to brewers as ale yeast. They produce fruitier, sweeter, real ale
type beers. Bottom-fermenting yeasts ferment more sugars leaving a
crisper taste and work well at low temperatures. An example is
Saccharomyces uvarum, formerly known as Saccharomyces carlsbergensis.
They are used in producing lager-type beers. Brewers of wheat beers
often use varieties of Torulaspora delbrueckii.

Fig. 1.
Schematic representation of proposed intermolecular hydrogen bond
interactions between isomaltose and -glucosidases
from baker's and brewer's yeast and from oligo-1,6-glucosidase from
baker's yeast. a , only for oligo-1,6-glucosidase.
Invariant glycoside hydrolase family 13 side chain candidates of
interaction with the four nonreducing substrate ring OH-groups are
described in detail in a recent review.
|
Substrate |
k
cat (s-1 ) |
K
m (mm) |
k
cat /K m (s-1
·mm-1 ) |
G a
(kJ·mol-1 ) |
|
|
|
-Glucosidase
(Brewer's yeast)b |
|
Isomaltose |
5.2 |
34.5 |
0.15 |
|
|
p
-Nitrophenyl--d-glucopyranoside |
135 |
0.2 |
677 |
|
|
OH-2 |
|
|
|
0.5 |
|
OH-3 |
|
|
|
-0.8 |
|
OH-4 |
|
|
|
-0.7 |
|
Oligo-1,6-glucosidasea |
|
Isomaltose |
33.3 |
6.9 |
4.8 |
|
|
p
-Nitrophenyl--d-glucopyranoside |
129 |
1.3 |
988 |
|
|
OH-2 |
|
|
|
5.8 |
|
OH-3 |
|
|
|
4.1 |
|
OH-4 |
|
|
|
– |
|
Glucoamylasec |
|
Isomaltose |
0.41 |
19.8 |
0.021 |
|
|
p
-Nitrophenyl--d-glucopyranoside |
0.50 |
3.7 |
0.135 |
|
|
OH-2 |
|
|
|
1.1 |
|
OH-3 |
|
|
|
8.6 |
|
OH-4 |
|
|
|
16.5 |
|
|
|
a
Data from Table 1; b[28]; c
[7,51]. |
Table 2.
Kinetic parameters and G for
hydrolysis of isomaltose and p -nitrophenyl-- d-glucopyranoside,
and mono-deoxy analogs of methyl -isomaltoside
at binding subsite +1 by -glucosidases
and glucoamylase.
|

Fig. 2. Hydrolysis of
isomaltose by baker's yeast -glucosidase
followed by 1 H NMR.
(A) before addition of enzyme; (B) 4 min; and (C)
16 h after addition of enzyme.

Fig. 3. Catalytic
mechanism for retaining glycoside hydrolases including steps of
protonation, formation of a covalent intermediate, and product
release, respectively, but not the intermediate two
transition-states
Recognition of diastereoisomeric isomaltoside
derivatives:
Isomaltose
is flexible due to rotation around the C5–C6 bond. It is
possible to block this conformational flexibility by
alkylation of C6 (Fig. 4).
Previously, methyl 6-R - and methyl 6-S
-methyl--isomaltoside
were used to determine the preferred rotational conformer
for glycoamylase. Hydrolysis catalyzed by baker's yeast -glucosidase
(this enzyme was chosen as it has the highest activity of
the two -glucosidases;
see Table 1) was
similarly examined using methyl 6-R -ethyl- and methyl
6-S -ethyl--isomaltoside
as the pair of conformationally biased substrate analogs
(Table 3).
While methyl 6-S -ethyl--isomaltoside
was hydrolyzed with twofold lower V max ,
but the same K m as isomaltose (Table 3), the
6-R enantiomer was a poor substrate V
max being 150-fold lower and K m twofold
higher than for isomaltose (Table 3).
Baker's yeast -glucosidase
thus preferred the 6-S isomer. In contrast,
glucoamylase from A. niger hydrolyzed the 6-R
enantiomer with 230-fold higher k cat /K
m compared to the parent isomaltoside, the
difference being essentially in the K m
and not in the rate of hydrolysis as for the -glucosidase.
This distinct preference for one of the two diastereoisomers
of the C-6 alkyl isomaltose derivatives reflects the fact that
one of the rotamers adopts a conformation with more favorable
spatial distribution of the groups that play an important
rolein the enzyme recognition. This finding stresses the
fundamentally different active site architecture that
exists for the inverting glucoamylase and the retaining -glucosidases.
Glucoamylase, in contrast to -glucosidase,
applies a single displacement mechanism and belongs to a
different fold family, glycoside hydrolase 15. The
specific activities and substrate affinities are similar
for these retaining and inverting enzymes, all of which have
reasonable capacity in the glucose release from the
nonreducing end of disaccharides and small substrates.
However, the -glucosidase
showed large variation in rate of hydrolysis between the
methyl 6-S - and 6-R -ethyl -isomaltosides,
with small differences in affinity for the two
distereoisomers, whereas the discrimination by
glucoamylase was associated with the K m and not
with the rate of hydrolysis (Table 3).

Fig. 4.
Structure of the conformationally biased diastereosisomer
substrates methyl 6-R -ethyl--isomaltoside
(A) and methyl 6-S -ethyl--isomaltoside
(B) .
Table
3. Kinetic
parameters for the hydrolysis of conformationally biased
isomaltosides.
|
Substrate |
V
max (mm· s-1 ·U-1 ) |
K
m (mm) |
V
max /K m (s-1 ·U-1
) |
|
|
|
-Glucosidase
from baker's yeasta |
|
Isomaltose |
2.8 x 10-3 |
9.8 |
2.8 x 10-4 |
|
Methyl 6-S
-ethyl--isomaltoside |
1.6 x 10-3 |
9.6 |
1.7 x 10-4 |
|
Methyl 6-R
-ethyl--isomaltoside |
1.8 x 10-5 |
19.4 |
9.3 x 10-7 |
|
Glucoamylase
from A. niger b |
k
cat (s-1 ) |
K
m (mm) |
k
cat /K m (s-1 ·mm-1
) |
|
Methyl -isomaltoside |
1.04 |
24.5 |
0.0042 |
|
Methyl 6-S
-methyl--isomaltoside |
1.1 |
90.0 |
0.012 |
|
Methyl 6-R
-methyl--isomaltoside |
0.68 |
0.71 |
0.96 |
|
|
|
aAt
30 °C, using 50 mm phosphate, pH 6.8. b [40]. |
EXAMPLE 1:
Brewer's yeast was subjected to autolysis, for breaking up of the
cell membranes. The lysed product was then separated by
centrifugation to produce yeast debris the fraction containing the
cell bodies having a viscosity of 10 cP (5% aqueous solution).
The yeast debris was then treated with sodium bicarbonate to as to
produce an extracted mix having a pH of 8.5. The mix was then
stirred for about one hour at room temperature, and centrifuged for
further separation.
The centrifuged material resulted in two streams namely cell wall
rich material and undegraded cells. The cell wall rich material was
resuspended in 2.5% sodium hydroxide and then 40% sodium hydroxide
added so as to adjust the pH of the material to 12.5. The cell wall
rich material was then indirectly heated on a water bath to about
65° C. for about one hour and then bleached by treatment with
hydrogen peroxide, for about one hour with mixing. Concentrated
hydrochloric acid was then added to the bleached material so as to
achieve a pH of 7.0; the material was further centrifuged and the pH
further lowered to 5.0. The resulting product was substantially free
of any whole yeast cells and predominantly comprised yeast ghosts or
shells having substantially uncollapsed walls. The yeast ghosts
confined a lower quantity of yeast cell contents relative to the
whole cells of the debris.
Water was acidified to pH 2 with dilute hydrochloric acid
and turmeric added to the resulting solution. The yeast cell
ghosts were added to the solution and the mixture stirred
for one minute, centrifuged, washed twice with water and
freeze-dried to give a stable canary yellow lake.
EXAMPLE 2:
Water was acidified to pH 6 with dilute hydrochloric acid
and annatto added to the resulting solution. Yeast cell
ghosts as prepared in Example 1 were added to the solution
and the mixture stirred for 1 minute, centrifuged, washed twice with
water and freeze-dried to give a stable orange lake.
Properties:
Brewers
yeast contains many different vitamins, minerals and amino acids.
The major vitamins are:-
Vitamin B1 (thiamin) –releases
energy from carbohydrate in the diet, and is important for the heart
and nervous system.
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) –
releases
energy from carbohydrate in the diet, and maintains healthy skin,
eyes and digestive tract.
Niacin (Vitamin B3) –
releases
energy from carbohydrate, and helps to maintain healthy skin,
digestive tract and nervous system.
Contra-indications/Precautions
Best
avoided by anyone taking monoamine oxidase inhibitors and people
suffering from gout.
|