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Updated: Oct 18, 2026

In Vivo Monitoring of Transcriptional Activity During Metabolic Transition Using a Bioluminescent Reporter in Yeast
Published on: February 21, 2025
Sugar selection modulates bread flavor through carbon source-dependent metabolism and transcriptional reprogramming
Na Ree Han1, Nayoung Lim2, Eun Ju Yun3
1Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School, Korea University, Seoul, 02841, Republic of Korea.
Abstract:
Bread flavor is fundamentally shaped by Saccharomyces cerevisiae metabolism during dough fermentation, yet how the type of sugar used as a carbon source identity drives distinct volatile profiles remains poorly understood. By integrating transcriptomics, non-volatile metabolomics, and volatile metabolomics, we characterized the carbon source-dependent metabolic programs of the industrial baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae SPC-SNU 70-1 fermenting glucose, fructose, maltose, and sucrose. Glucose established a baseline metabolic state with the highest relative levels of branched-chain fusel alcohols. Fructose induced a high-flux glycolytic overflow state, accompanied by higher relative levels of acetate esters associated with fruity and floral aroma notes, which appeared to be driven by substrate availability rather than transcriptional induction of alcohol acetyltransferases. Maltose established a balanced, hydrolysis-limited state without overflow metabolite accumulation. Sucrose, despite minimal transcriptional reprogramming, showed a distinct volatile profile, partly reflecting reduced yeast turnover of flour-derived lipid oxidation products. Integration of these datasets showed that fructose and maltose shared similar changes in respiratory and Ehrlich pathway gene expression yet yielded divergent metabolite and volatile profiles, suggesting that volatile biosynthesis is governed primarily by substrate availability rather than transcriptional regulation and providing a basis for bread flavor modulation through strategic carbon source selection.
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