从面包到突破：酵母与现代生物学的崛起

Yeast’s emergence as a model organism reshaped scientific discovery in cell biology, genetics, and more. BY LAURA TRAN, PhD F or millennia, yeast has held a place at the table of history, transforming flour into bread, grapes into wine, and grain into beer. But yeast is much more than a building block for a good meal. It offers a glimpse into the fundamental questions about the inner workings of cells and into something much larger than itself—human biology. In the latter half of the 20th century, researchers relied on mammalian systems, including mouse and human cells, as representatives of higher eukaryotes. Yeast had not yet become a widely recognized model organism for studying fundamental biological processes. …