21 Jun The many ways yeast can be used – beyond beer, bread, and wine
Industrial uses of yeast are numerous: from the obvious ones like in bread, beer and wine making, to the least know such as in biofuel production or probiotic drinks. But yeast has many other applications not yet exploited and culture collections are invaluable resources to mine for discovering new strains with potential industrial applications.
In this webinar, Kyria Boundy-Mills, UC Davis Phaff Yeast collection curator, describes the many ways that yeasts are used in basic and applied research. She then describes her research on yeasts that convert inexpensive substrates into oils. This includes substitutes for animal fat and tropical oils for meat substitutes, renewable alternatives to petroleum, and a new class of glycolipid biosurfactants. Her research program uses the more than 1,500 species in the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection at UC Davis, plus over 60 years of unpublished data. By using her knowledge of yeasts in general, and the collection’s specimens and data, partnerships with industry have resulted in discovery of novel yeast oils.
Microbial culture collections, including the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection at the University of California Davis, preserve organisms for a broad range of basic and applied research. Collections both distribute specimens to researchers around the world, and are used by in-house research programs.
Source: The webinar titled “Production of animal fat substitutes (and much more!) by yeasts ” was organized by The Good Food Institute on February 16, 2023, as part of the series “The Science of Alt. Protein”.