TEACHING BIOCHEMISTRY OF NUTRITION: AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH USING YEASTS

MANUEL ALONSO AND CARLOS STELLA

ADVANCES IN PHYSIOLOGY EDUCATION

AMER PHYSIOLOGICAL SOC

Lugar: Bethesda; Año: 2012

1043-4046

In this paper, we present a practical approach to teach human nutrition to Science students at High school level, using baker´s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as experimental model. The diameter of yeast colonies due to different nutritional conditions can be observed, compared and used to teach metabolic requirements. The experiments described show simple macroscopic evidence of submicroscopic nutritional events that can function as a useful base for an analogy of heterotrophic human cell metabolism and chemical digestion.