What Living Organism Does The Yeast Fermentation Process

What is fermentation:

When there is a lack of oxygen, fermentation becomes the cells primary way of producing ATP. There are two types of fermentation; alcohol fermentation and lactic acid fermentation. In alcohol fermentation, pyruvate is changed to ethanol. During lactic acid fermentation, NADH directly reduces pyruvate to form lactate without releasing CO2 .

What living organism does the fermenting:

Yeast and acetobacter are the living organisms that perform alcohol fermentation.

What's the specific process occurring/ how is it made:

In alcoholic fermentation, the first process is when yeast changes natural sugars to alcohol, this is alcoholic fermentation. The second process is when a group of bacteria, called “acetobacter”, changes

the alcohol to acid. Vinegar can be made from anything containing sugar.

How did this process evolve:
No known record of when vinegar came into existence but the discovery of wine,which was first discovered when a cup of grape juice was left unattended, helped lead the Babylonians to the discovery of vinegar in approximately 5000 BC.

How is it enhanced:
Vinegar can be made from any material containing sugar so there are too many versions to count.
Examples include:
Apple Cider Vinegar- made from apple juice
Balsamic Vinegar- made from grape juice
Distilled Vinegar- made from distilled alcohol

Current research:
Vinegar kills bacteria such as E.coli so it is primarily used for cooking, cleaning, and preserving foods. It is used to “enhance the flavor as well as the unique ability to alter the color and texture of foods”.

Fun Facts:
-Vinegar used to be poured onto lead and added to make cider sour until it was proven this was poisonous
-Cleopatra used vinegar to dissolve pearls to make a “love potion” (c. 50BC)
- The ancient Roman military used vinegar to dissolve boulders in their way.