YEPD Agar- Composition, Principle, Preparation, Results, Uses

Yeasts are unicellular eukaryotes and extensively studied model organism in molecular genetics.
They are chemoorganotrophs as they utilize organic compounds as a source of energy.
Yeast extract peptone dextrose (YPD or YEPD) Growth Agar is used for the maintenance and propagation of yeasts including S. cerevisiae in various molecular microbiology procedures.
YPD functions as a complete medium for yeast growth.

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Composition of YEPD Agar

Final pH (at 25°C): 6.5±0.2

YEPD consists of yeast extract, peptone, and glucose or dextrose.
Yeasts grow well on a minimal medium containing only dextrose and salts.
The addition of protein and yeast cell extract hydrolysates allows faster growth so that during exponential or log-phase growth.
Yeast extract supplies B-complex vitamins and it contains all the amino acids necessary for growth.
Peptone acts as the source of nitrogen, vitamins, and minerals.
Dextrose serves as the carbon source.
This medium supports the vigorous growth of wild type as well as mutant strains of all kinds of budding yeast.

Suspend 65 grams of the powder in 1 liter of purified water.
Mix thoroughly.
Heat the agar medium with frequent agitation and boil for 1 minute to completely dissolve the powder.
Autoclave the agar and broth media at 121°C for 15 minutes.
Cool to 45-50ºC.
Portion equally into Petri plates.

Organisms	Growth
Kluyveromyces lactis	Luxuriant growth
Saccharomyces cerevisiae	Luxuriant growth; smooth, moist, glistening colonies
Candida albicans	Luxuriant growth

YEPD is used as a growth medium to grow yeast cultures.
It is used for the growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
This medium supports the growth of most heterotrophic microorganisms but due to their simple composition, they have been adopted as the basal media for the routine cultivation of yeasts.
It is used for preparing culture media in molecular microbiology procedures.

It is a non-selective medium.
By being a complete medium, YEPD cannot be used as a selection medium to test for auxotrophs.