An evolutionary perspective on the Crabtree effect
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The capability to ferment sugars into ethanol is a key metabolic trait of yeasts. Crabtree-positive yeasts use fermentation even in the presence of oxygen, where they could, in principle, rely on the respiration pathway. This is surprising because fermentation has a much lower ATP yield than respiration (2 ATP vs. approximately 18 ATP per glucose). While genetic events in the evolution of the Crabtree effect have been identified, the selective advantages provided by this trait remain controversial. In this review we analyse explanations for the emergence of the Crabtree effect from an evolutionary and game-theoretical perspective. We argue that an increased rate of ATP production is likely the most important factor behind the emergence of the Crabtree effect.
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S. cerevisiae belongs to yeasts exhibiting the Crabtree effect, a preference for fermentative energy production in high glucose concentration even in the presence of oxygen.
“S. cerevisiae belongs to yeasts exhibiting the Crabtree effect—preference for fermentative energy production in high glucose concentration even in the presence of oxygen (Hagman et al. 2013; Pfeiffer and Morley 2014; Williams et al. 2015; Nespolo et al. 2020).”
From Mitochondrial retrograde control of transcription evolves with respiratory stress, metabolic adaptation, and virulence in budding yeasts (2026) · cites this paper as Pfeiffer and Morley 2014
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- Authors
- Pfeiffer, T., & Morley, A.
- Affiliations
- Massey University (NZ)
- Corresponding author
- Pfeiffer, Thomas
- ORCID
- Pfeiffer, Thomas
- Venue
- Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2014-10-21
- Volume
- 1
- Pages
- 17-17
- ISSN
- 2296-889X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4429655
- OpenAlex
- W2172296079
- Cited by
- 318
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 3.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Fungal and yeast genetics research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
- Keywords
- Crabtree effect, yeast evolution, fermentation, respiration, ATP yield, game theory, evolutionary emergence, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, ethanol production, metabolic trade-offs
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