Construction of a sucrose-fermenting bakers' yeast incapable of hydrolysing fructooligosaccharides.

Fructooligosaccharides stimulate the growth of intestinal bifidobacteria which are related to the favorable health and nutrition of humans and other animals. Since the efficient amount of fructooligosaccharide for an adult human is relatively large (about 5 g per day), its addition to daily foods like bakery goods might be beneficial. However, commercial Bakers' yeast hydrolyses fructooligosaccharides by the action of invertase encoded in SUC genes and ferments the resulting monosaccharides. According to the findings that strains carrying the MAL-constitutive gene and lacking the SUC gene fermented sucrose and not fructooligosaccharide, we constructed a sucrose-fermenting strain, YOY920, incapable of hydrolysing fructooligosaccharide, by cross-breeding a baking strain and a laboratory strain. In a molasses medium, the cell yield of YOY920 was comparable to that of a baking strain FSC6001, and much higher than that of the non-sucrose-fermenting strains. Although fructooligosaccharide inhibited the dough leavening ability of YOY920, white bread containing fructooligosaccharide could be produced in the defined dough formula using the new strain.