The effect of vitamins and amino acids on glucose uptake in aerobic chemostat cultures of three Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains.

In the respiro-fermentative region of aerobic chemostat cultures at steady state, Saccharomyces cerevisiae CBS 8066 produced high concentrations of ethanol with concomitant low levels of residual glucose which followed Monod kinetics. By contrast, very high residual glucose concentrations were observed in cultures of S. cerevisiae strains ATCC 4126 and NRRL Y132 at dilution rates above 60% of the washout dilution rate, resulting in much lower ethanol concentrations, even though clearly glucose-limited at lower dilution rates in the respiratory region. The addition of a vitamin mixture resulted in decreased residual glucose concentrations in respiro-fermentative cultures of all three strains, but the effect was much more pronounced with strains ATCC 4126 and NRRL Y132. Meso-inositol was mainly responsible for this effect, although with strain ATCC 4126 other vitamins as well as an amino acid mixture were also required to minimise the steady-state residual glucose levels. The residual glucose concentration in continuous culture was, therefore, greatly dependent on the growth factor requirements of the particular yeast strain, which apparently increased on increasing the dilution rate into the respiro-fermentative region. The strain differences with respect to growth factor requirements at high dilution rates, which were not evident at low dilution rates, had a profound effect on the kinetics of glucose assimilation in aerobic chemostat culture.