Systems biology of yeast metabolism

Review article, 2026

Metabolism underpins cellular function by supplying energy, biosynthetic precursors, and redox balance and in yeast there are thousands of metabolic reactions that are tightly coordinated through multilayered regulation. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has become a central model for studying metabolism and its regulation and following publication of its genome in 1996, this yeast became pivotal in systems biology. Systems biology integrates experimental data with mathematical modeling to analyse complex cellular networks. A major advance for metabolic analysis was the development of flux balance analysis and genome sequencing enabled reconstruction of the first genome-scale metabolic model (GEM) for yeast. This initial GEM described how hundreds of genes, reactions, and metabolites interact across compartments. Subsequent models, including Yeast8 and Yeast9, expanded the coverage and predictive power, and these models enable metabolic comparison, physiological analysis, omics integration, and design of strains that can be used for production of chemicals and biopharmaceuticals. Overall, S. cerevisiae remains a cornerstone of systems biology and biotechnology, with continued advances expected in integrative modeling and engineering applications. This short review provides a historical account of how yeast became an important model organism in systems biology and discuss why it will continue to serve as an important model organism in this field.