Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

Fall 2024

Abstract

Flocculation is a phenomenon found in yeast such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae in which cells aggregate in response to stressful environmental conditions. This occurs as the result of the interaction of flocculin proteins on the plasma membrane with mannose residues on the surface of other yeast cells which is often exploited in the brewing process to avoid expensive filtration steps. Guanidine is a chaotropic agent which reduces the stability of proteins by weakening the hydrophobic effect. Since it is believed that flocculation is dependent on protein-mannose binding interactions, if the structure of the flocculin proteins is altered by guanidine, their functionality would be impacted, causing a decrease in flocculation. The goal of this research is to quantify the impact of guanidinium chloride treatment at concentrations of 1M, 3M, and 6M on percent flocculation in the WLP002 strain of brewing yeast. Higher concentrations were hypothesized to invoke a greater decrease in percent flocculation. A modified version of Helm’s assay was performed, and percent flocculation was assessed using OD660 values.

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