Engineering sucrose metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae for improved ATP yield

Abstract

Contemporary society heavily depends on fossil sources. The energy and materials derived from fossil reserves were major contributors to the acceleration and intensification of agriculture and industry over the past 100 years. Such reserves are finite, hence, after expanding geographically, our economy is now consuming natural reserves that should not just support our generation but also those of the future. This unsustainable scenario becomes even more concerning when environmental impacts are taken into account. Even in the most ― and probably unrealistic ― optimistic climate scenarios, which assume no further increase in CO2 emissions in the next decades, the global temperature would still raise by 2 °C at the end of this century with respect to pre-industrial era, which could already have a negative impact on, for instance, food security.