Your Relative, Yeast

Yeast - you know, that stuff that makes bread rise, or ferments beer. It's a simple, single celled organism in the Fungi Kingdom. And if you asked most people what it has in common with them, they'd probably say "nothing."

The truth is, you both have a lot in common.
1. You're both made of cells.
2. Your cells contain smaller units called organelles that perform special jobs, just like the organs in your body do.
3. You both perform complex chemical reactions, like fermentation in yeast and cellular respiration in you.
4. You both grow.
5. You are both capable of reproduction.
6. You both respond to changes in your environment.
7. You both use DNA as an instruction manual to tell your cells how to do their jobs.

But wait, there's more. 30% of your genes are similar to the genes of yeast. And not just similar, VERY similar!

What the...?!? How? Why? Well, it seems that, no matter how complicated or how simple an organism is, at the heart of matters, we're all made of cells. And cells work in fundamentally the same way. There are certain things that all cells need to do, in order to stay alive. Once cells "figured out" how to do these things, they just kept the instructions the same. So the genes that tell cells how to do all of these things are the same, whether they're in our cells or those of yeast.

So the next time you're eating bread, or drinking beer (if you're old enough) take some time to thank your relative, the humble yeast.