Yeast metabolic adaptation to environment

Yeast metabolism has been a subject of research since the XIX century, when Louis Pasteur had proved that yeast are live organisms and fermentation is one of the processes to produce molecular energy. Yeast ability to ferment is a consequence of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity, the group of enzymes responsible for sugar conversion in to ethanol as ADH1, and alcohol metabolism as a source of carbohydrates (ADH2). The group of ADH enzymes play a crucial role for yeast adaptation especially in rich sugar environments such as after angiosperm occurrence. Evolution of yeast genes is based on chromosomal multiplication event, previously explained as a Whole Genome Duplication (WGD), presently it has been proven that the yeast common ancestor is a hybrid from different strains. Duplication cause that some multiplaies genes accumulate mutation without cell growth burden and consequently favor formations exploiting new features of proteins. Yeast ability to ferment make them dominate in a sugar environment, however Saccharomyces cerevisiae evolve some quorum-sensing mechanism, which plays crucial role in population messengers as tyrosol which is signaling about cellular density in culture. Moreover there are scientific reports about yeast specific social-wraps which suggest that yeast surviving depends on more complex mechanisms, which pose challenges for researchers. The aim of this article is a short review of yeast metabolic strategy which allow yeast to dominate in high sugar environments and abilities which make yeast so important in nature.