Introductory Chapter: Yeasts in Biotechnology

Abstract

Yeasts are very important for many reasons. These microorganisms were the first species to be domesticated by man, although not intentionally. For millennia they were used in fermented beverages and foods without knowing their existence. Biochemistry as a science was born when physiologists looked deeper in sugar fermentation in the final of nineteenth century. Today yeast takes a place in several fields of science and technology. As long as yeast genes and mammal cells encode very similar proteins, these microorganisms are useful as a model to understand and interpret human DNA sequences. Indeed, yeast genetic manipulation is much easier and cheaper than mammalian systems. So yeast has turned out to be a useful model for eukaryotic biology [1, 2]. Furthermore yeasts such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Picchia pastoris, and Schizosaccharomyces pombe have been used as model organisms to study cancer biology, including research and development of tumorigenic mechanisms and production of anticancer drugs [3]. Particularly, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a model organism to study epigenetic traits that can be characterized as a stably heritable phenotype resulting from changes in a chromosome without alteration in the DNA sequence. As a result of yeast small eukaryotic genome, short generation time and easy genetic manipulation [4]. Additionally yeasts are very important players in many economical relevant bioprocessing as bakery, brewery, distilling, food industry, and biofuel, leading yeasts to be considered the most explored and studied eukaryotic microorganism.