The effect of different sugars in the medium on carbon dioxide production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Carbon dioxide is the by-product of many metabolic processes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae including fermentation and oxidative phosphorylation. The objective of this experiment was to examine the effect of two different monosaccharides, glucose and fructose, as well as two different disaccharides, sucrose and maltose, on the rate of carbon dioxide production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, when the sugars were metabolized separately. We measured the amount of CO₂ produced by Saccharomyces cerevisiae in media with the different sugars within an hour, at 5-minute intervals. The volume of carbon dioxide produced was measured using respirometers. We found that sucrose resulted in a faster rate of carbon dioxide production than maltose; while as a whole, monosaccharides produced more carbon dioxide compared to disaccharides. Glucose and fructose, however, produced carbon dioxide at the same rate. Our results can largely be explained by an understanding of the different transport mechanisms used by the sugars to enter the cell before they are metabolized (Lagunas 1993).