Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

, Volume 43, Issue 1, pp 18–24 | Cite as

Ethanol tolerance of immobilized brewers' yeast cells

  • S. Norton
  • K. Watson
  • T. D'Amore
Biotechnology Original Paper
Received:
Revised:
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Abstract

A method based on the survival of yeast cells subjected to an ethanol or heat shock was utilized to compare the stress resistance of free and carrageenan-immobilized yeast cells. Results demonstrated a significant increase of yeast survival against ethanol for immobilized cells as compared to free cells, while no marked difference in heat resistance was observed. When entrapped cells were released by mechanical disruption of the gel beads and submitted to the same ethanol stress, they exhibited a lower survival rate than entrapped cells, but a similar or slightly higher survival rate than free cells. The incidence of ethanol- or heat-induced respiratory-deficient mutants of entrapped cells was equivalent to that of control or non-stressed cells (1.3 ± 0.5%) whereas ethanol- and heat-shocked free and released cells exhibited between 4.4% and 10.9% average incidence of respiration-deficient mutants. It was concluded that the carrageenan gel matrix provided a protection against ethanol, and that entrapped cells returned to normal physiological behaviour as soon as they were released. The cell growth rate was a significant factor in the resistance of yeast to high ethanol concentrations. The optimum conditions to obtain reliable and reproducible results involved the use of slow-growing cells after exhaustion of the sugar substrate.

Keywords

Yeast Cell Immobilize Cell Free Cell Lower Survival Rate Cell Growth Rate 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 1995

Authors and Affiliations

  • S. Norton
    • 1
  • K. Watson
    • 2
  • T. D'Amore
    • 1
  1. 1.Labatt Breweries of CanadaLondonCanada
  2. 2.Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and NutritionUniversity of New EnglandArmidaleAustralia

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