Wild yeasts live in the forests all around us. Yet, little is known about the role they play in ecosystems. They can be used to develop new beer and bread flavors, but wild yeast can also serve as a unique model for studying climate change.
Rike Stelkens. Photo: Magnus Bergström/KAW
When Rike Stelkens explains her research, she sometimes brings out a piece of old bark. She collected the bark from an ancient oak tree near her home in Åkersberga, north of Stockholm. The bark hosts an entire micro-world of wild yeast.
“For thousands of years, humans have inadvertently brought yeast from nature into their homes. They baked bread, brewed beer, and made wine with the help of microorganisms invisible to the naked eye,” she explains.
Stelkens is a researcher at Stockholm University and a Wallenberg Academy Fellow. Her research revolves around yeast in all its wild forms. Yeast is not just the powder you buy in the grocery store to bake buns. Wild varieties exist throughout nature, and they sometimes have exciting properties.
Stelkens has spent several years researching hybridization – how crosses between different yeast species can produce new strains with unexpected capabilities. Now, she also wants to use yeast to better understand climate change.
“The idea is to use yeast as a model for climate research,” she says.
