Growth and Maintenance of Yeast

On many occasions, baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) has been referred to as the Escherichia coli of the eukaryotic world. Yeast has been extensively characterized genetically and a complete physical map is now available. Much of the comparison to E. coli is based on the observations that culturing yeast is simple, economical, and rapid, with a doubling time in rich medium of approx 90 min. Cells divide mitotically by forming a bud, which is subsequently pinched off to form a daughter cell. Yeast can also be grown on a completely defined medium, which has allowed the isolation of numerous nutritional auxotrophs. This type of analysis has provided manly mutations useful for genetic analysis and as selectable markers for plasmid manipulation.