Sauerkraut, sourdough, beer…and chocolate? They’re all fermented foods that rely on microbes of various types to transform the flavor of their raw ingredients into something totally different.
Bananas in Java, Indonesia, infected by the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense, which causes Fusarium Wilt.
Clare Thatcher
Yeast is a single-celled organism that’s everywhere around us. Understanding how yeast works can help you make better bread and appreciate this old friend of humanity.
He died so that we might eat cheese.
Vasekk/Shutterstock
Bread. Yeast. Wine. Cheese. All these delicious foods are courtesy of various forms of domesticated fungi. So how, exactly, did humans tame wild fungi into the cooperative species that make our food?
This is a medical illustration of an drug-resistant fungus, Aspergillus fumigatus.
Stephanie Rossow/CDC
Mention fungi and most people think of eating mushrooms or yeasts in bread or beer. But fungi are now on the CDC’s list of public health threats as the number of deadly infections they cause rise.
Researchers have discovered a lineage of yeast species that ignores the laws of cell growth.
Alexander Kirch/Shutterstock.com
Yeast isn’t just important for the foods we consume. A rogue lineage of yeast species that evolves faster than any other is revealing secrets that may help illuminate the molecular causes of cancer.
What can mating yeast tell us about new drugs?
Conor Lawless
Vegemite has been used for many things over the years. But claims it was used to brew alcohol in dry Indigenous communities had many asking if that was even possible.
Building yeast chromosomes – cheers to that!
Scott Beale/Flicke
Australia is to play a significant role in the quest for artificial life as it joins an international project to create the world’s first synthetic yeast, we can announce today. Under the leadership of…
Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Biological Sciences, Professor of Biological Sciences and Biomedical Informatics, and Director of the Vanderbilt Evolutionary Studies Initiative, Vanderbilt University