A genus of yeasts commonly used in baking, brewing, and winemaking, including baker's yeast and brewer's yeast. These single-celled fungi are essential for fermentation processes.
From Greek sakcharon (sugar) + mykes (fungus), literally meaning 'sugar fungus'. Named by German botanist Franz Meyen in 1838 for the yeast's ability to ferment sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae might be humanity's oldest domesticated organism - we've been unknowingly partnering with these tiny fungi for thousands of years to make bread rise and create alcoholic beverages. Remarkably, this simple yeast was also the first eukaryotic organism to have its entire genome sequenced, making it a crucial model organism in genetics research.
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