Kluyveromyces lactis

Kluyveromyces lactis is a Kluyveromyces yeast commonly used for genetic studies and industrial applications. Its name comes from the ability to assimilate lactose and convert it into lactic acid. Kluyveromyces lactis (formerly Saccharomyces lactis) is a yeast which has the ability to assimilate lactose and convert it into lactic acid. K. lactis and other organisms i.e., Aspergillus niger var awamori and Escherichia coli K-12 are grown in fermenters to produce chymosin (rennet) on a commercial scale; this rennet, which replaces the conventional form obtained from slaughtered animals, is now widely used in cheese production. Yeasts and fungi are ideal organisms for comparative genomic studies in eukaryotes because of their small and compact genomes and because they include a number of species such as Neurospora crassa, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe, that have been, and continue to be, used extensively in genetic studies. However, the divergence between these thre......read more on Wikipedia.