Altered sterol composition renders yeast thermotolerant

Tricks for boosting yeast's ethanol yields To become a widely used source of fuel, widespread industrial production of ethanol using yeast needs to be simple and efficient. However, two conditions ideal for boosting production—tolerance of higher temperatures and high concentrations of ethanol—have been limiting (see the Perspective by Cheng and Kao). Now, Caspeta et al. have used adaptive laboratory evolution to find yeast strains that can tolerate high temperatures and Lam et al. have identified a route to improve yeast's resistance to high concentrations of ethanol. Science , this issue p. 75 , p. 71 ; see also p. 35