Yeast cell death is triggered when essential nutrients such as potassium and lipid are limited but ammonium is in excess. When ammonium and glucose were maintained at 100% of the normal concentration while all the other essential nutrients in yeast nitrogen base (YNB) were reduced to 2%, yeast growth was halted by ammonium toxicity. Yeast started to grow again when either ammonium was also reduced to 2% or gluconate was added, but simultaneously adding gluconate as well as reducing all the nutrients except glucose 50-fold revived yeast growth to a greater extent, i.e. a quarter of the normal growth. Gluconate, as well as formate and alginate, stimulated yeast growth by buffering the drop in pH. Yeast cells were seemingly more susceptible to low pH under the nutrient-limited conditions, entering the stationary phase at pH higher than that of the normal condition. Carboxylate salts may prove a cost-efficient replacement for large proportions of the essential nutrients as yeast cells, in the presence of 2 mg ml⁻¹ gluconate, could still achieve nearly 90% of the normal growth when cultured in only 10% of the normal YNB concentration.

当钾和脂质等必需营养素有限但铵过量时，会触发酵母细胞死亡。当铵和葡萄糖维持在正常浓度的 100% 时，酵母氮碱 (YNB) 中的所有其他必需营养素降低到 2% 时，酵母的生长因铵毒而停止。当铵也减少到 2% 或添加葡萄糖酸盐时，酵母开始再次生长，但同时添加葡萄糖酸盐以及将除葡萄糖以外的所有营养物质减少 50 倍，使酵母的生长恢复到更大程度，即正常生长的四分之一. 葡萄糖酸盐以及甲酸盐和藻酸盐通过缓冲 pH 值的下降来刺激酵母生长。在营养有限的条件下，酵母细胞似乎更容易受到低 pH 值的影响，在高于正常条件的 pH 值进入固定相。在存在 2 mg ml^-1葡萄糖酸盐，当仅在正常 YNB 浓度的 10% 中培养时，仍可实现近 90% 的正常生长。