the.com/yeast
the single-celled overachiever that turned flour and grapes into civilization's two favorite vices
means A microscopic single-celled fungus that ferments sugars into carbon dioxide and alcohol, used to leaven bread and brew beer and wine.
from From Old English 'gist' or 'gyst,' tracing back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning to boil, foam, or bubble up — the same churning idea behind Greek 'zein' (to boil) and likely a cousin of words for froth and effervescence. Long before anyone could see the organism through a lens, people named it for the only thing they could observe: the lively bubbling froth it raised in the dough and the vat.
- ancient ally
- Domesticated for bread and beer over 5,000 years ago
- true nature
- A fungus, closer to mushrooms than to plants
- exhales bubbles
- Eats sugar, breathes out carbon dioxide and alcohol
- lab celebrity
- First eukaryote to have its genome fully sequenced
- shares our genes
- Roughly a third overlap with human DNA
saccharomyces cerevisiae — baker's yeast used in bread since ancient egypt, produces co2 for leavening
saccharomyces pastorianus — lager yeast ferments at 50-60°f, dominates german and czech brewing since 1500s
candida auris — deadly emerging fungal pathogen, multi-drug resistant strain identified 2009, hospital outbreaks worldwide