Abstract
There is an ever-increasing demand for industrial enzyme, necessitating a constant search for its efficient producers. The isolation and characterization of invertase producer yeasts from natural palm wine is reported in this study. Yeasts were isolated from fresh palm wine obtained from Abagboro community Ile-Ife, Nigeria following standard methods. A total of six yeast strains were isolated from the palm wine. The strains were screened for their ability to produce invertase and the most efficient invertase producer was characterized and identified using phenotypic and molecular methods. Isolate C showed the highest invertase activity (34.15 µmole/ml/min), followed by isolate B (18.070 µmole/ml/min) and isolate A (14.385 µmole/ml/min). The identity of isolate C was confirmed by genotypic methods to be Saccharomyces cerevisiae (OL629078.1 accession number on NCBI database). The Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain fermented galactose, arabinose, maltose, glucose, sucrose and raffinose, grew in 50% and 60% glucose and at 25-35 °C. The newly isolated Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain is an efficient producer of invertase and can be exploited for commercial biosynthesis of the enzyme for use in biotechnological applications.