MODIFICATION OF BIOCHEMICAL PATHWAYS IN INDUSTRIAL YEASTS

Yeasts have many applications in industrial food and beverage producti on. While these uses are often of ancient origin, modern demands for c ontrol of the amounts of process-derived compounds and for cost-effect ive processing can make it desirable to modify metabolic pathways of p roduction yeasts. While the genetics of standard laboratory strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are well described, industrial strains and s pecies are less characterized, and many of them have a complicated gen etic constitution. Nevertheless, their biochemical pathways can be mod ified, and the knowledge becoming available on the physiology of genet ic reference strains of S. cerevisiae is a great help in directing the modifications of the industrial yeasts towards practical goals.