The production of ethanol by yeast fermentation represents the largest of all global biotechnologies. Consequently, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the world's premier industrial microorganism, which is responsible not only for the production of alcoholic beverages, including beer, wine, and distilled spirits, but also for the billions of liters of bioethanol produced annually for use as a renewable transportation fuel. Although humankind has exploited the fermentative activities of yeasts for millennia, many aspects of alcohol fermentation remain poorly understood. This chapter will review some of the key considerations in optimizing industrial alcohol fermentations with a particular emphasis on enhancement opportunities involving cell physiology and strain engineering of the major microbial ethanologen, the yeast S. cerevisiae.

通过酵母发酵生产乙醇代表了全球所有生物技术中最大的技术。因此，酵母酿酒酵母是世界上主要的工业微生物，不仅负责生产酒精饮料，包括啤酒，葡萄酒和蒸馏酒，而且还负责每年生产数十亿公升用作可再生运输燃料的生物乙醇。尽管人类利用酵母的发酵活性已有数千年的历史，但酒精发酵的许多方面仍知之甚少。本章将回顾优化工业酒精发酵的一些关键考虑因素，特别着重于增加机会，涉及主要微生物乙醇原，酿酒酵母的细胞生理学和菌株工程。