Previous experiments in vitro have demonstrated the ability of acylphosphatase to increase the rate of glucose fermentation in yeast. To evaluate the possibility of increasing fermentation in vivo also, a chemically synthesized DNA sequence coding for human muscle acylphosphatase was expressed at high level in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Ethanol production was measured in these engineered strains in comparison with a control. Acylphosphatase expression strongly increased the rate of ethanol production both in aerobic and anaerobic culture. This finding may be potentially important for the development of more efficient industrial fermentation processes.