Researchers track yeast population dynamics in fuel bioethanol production

Researchers at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil, in collaboration with colleagues at Harvard University in the United States, conducted an innovative study of the DNA and population dynamics of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the yeast used to produce fuel ethanol from sugarcane by plants throughout Brazil, with the aim of finding routes to more stable, consistent and predictable fermentation performance.