how does the concentration of ethanol effect the rate of respiration in yeast cells

[kyledaines]

how does the concentration of ethanol effect the rate of respiration in yeast cells?

[ursula62]

ohh this sounds like a homework question?

think about it this way... if you get drunk does your respiration rate increase or decrease?

[JohnDTC]

respiration is the production of ATP from glucose at the cellular level. i'm not sure how the increasing concentration of alcohol affects the respiration rate of individual cells -i.e the mechanism, but above a certain threshold of [ethanol] the yeast cells will be killed. i would assume that there would be a steady overall decrease in respiration and then a sharp drop off as the yeast cells are killed by toxic ethanol levels. i would think that ethanol generally interferes with cell organelles, & would be a solvent of phospholipid membranes etc.

different yeast strains can tolerate different [ethanol]. yeast used in wine production can typically ferment glucose upto around 12% ethanol before the yeast is killed, that used for beer upto around 6% -& there are some used to produce alcohol for industrial use and spirits production tolerant to just over 20%.

Hope that helps.