YeastScent - Volatile metabolites as quantitative proxy for metabolic network operation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Investigators: Elias Kuthe & Sven Rahmann
Collaborators: Lars Blank, Christoph Halbfeld, Birgitta E. Ebert (RWTH Aachen), Sebastian Engell, Sven Wegerhoff (TU Dortmund), Jörg Ingo Baumbach, Ann-Kathrin Sippel (Reutlingen), Jessica Kuhlmann (B&S Analytik GmbH, Dortmund), Michael Quantz, Erik Pollmann (Versuchsanstalt der Hefeindustrie e.V., Berlin)
Funding: BMBF project 031A301C

YeastScent - Volatile metabolites as quantitative proxy for metabolic network operation of <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i>

For rapid yeast production, the optimal feed rate is crucial: If too little glucose is provided, growth rate is not optimal. On the other hand, too much glucose leads to the so called crabtree effect where ethanol is produced, which leads to low-quality yeast or even to a lost batch.

In this project, we therefore aim to better understand metabolic changes during yeast fermentation just before the onset of ethanol production by monitoring volatile organic compounds (VOCs) measured by multi-capillary column ion mobility spectrometry (MCC/IMS). The key task is to discover VOCs that precede the crabtree effect, such that the feed rate can be adaptively reduced or increased based on an estimation of fermentation state.

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