ABSTRACT
Industrial yeasts face many stress conditions during their biotechnological use for food production. Yeast biomass production for use as starter can cause major oxidative stress, while osmotic shock is present during biomass dehydration and cold is a key factor when yeasts are stored at low temperatures. Hyperosmotic shock, ethanol toxicity and starvation are relevant during grape juice fermentation, and those adverse conditions are also often found in other fermentations, such as beer brewing and sake production. Osmotic stress and low temperatures are also relevant for baking yeast production and use. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a model organism for biochemistry and molecular biology studies. Stress sensing and signaling have been extensively studied in laboratory conditions for all these different stress insults. Most of the molecular mechanisms described there are useful in understanding industrial Saccharomyces strains behavior. However, the genetic particularities of these biotechnological strains, the specific growth media and the industrial environmental conditions employed, require the specific analyses that are the subject of this chapter.
