The Effect of Corn Starch and Glucose on Yeast Growth
Without yeast, no alcohol would ferment or dough leaven. Humans have used yeast for millennia, but only comparatively recently discovered its existence (Wyeast Laboratories). To this date, yeast is one of the most studied organisms; its whole genome mapped (What Are Yeast?). Obviously, humans have seen its importance, for multiple nutritional staples would not exist if it were not for yeast. So, any improvement in the rate yeast functions to make these staples provides an evident advantage to human society. The goal of this experiment was to find if a significant difference existed between yeast growth due to adding glucose and adding corn starch.
In this experiment, yeast was grown in potato dextrose broth that had a corn starch solution or a glucose solution added. The percent transmittance of the broths was tested against a standard. The standard was the broth plus the solution without yeast added. A two sample t-test was performed, testing the percent transmittance of the broth with glucose against the broth with corn starch. There was almost a zero percent chance of getting the results of this experiment if there was no difference in yeast growth between the two populations. Yeast grown in the potato dextrose broth with glucose added yielded a higher population.
Research Done By:
Alex Ginzinger
Warren Woods Tower High School
Rebecca LeBeau
Cousino High School
Warren Consolidated Schools