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east is not typically considered a domesticated organism. Dogs, cats, and cows might come to mind first, but humans have nonetheless played an important role in the fungus’s evolution. A study in Current Biology published yesterday (December 9) reports that humans have caused most bread yeast strains, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to diverge into two distinct groups: one used in large-scale, industrial bread-making and one used in artisanal sourdough bread. While industrial strains start fermenting more quickly, sourdough yeasts have more copies of the genes responsible for metabolizing maltose, a process that typically happens later in the fermentation process and helps leaven the dough.
“It’s a good paper,” says Pacific Northwest Research Institute senior investigator Aimée Dudley, who studies yeast genetics and was not involved in the study. “It makes sense with what we know about how people have been baking bread historically,” referring to the priority of ...
