In order to obtain mutant strains showing higher bioethanol production than wild-type strains, a commercial Saccharomyces cerevisiae type was subjected to mutagenesis using ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS). After adding EMS to a shaken yeast suspension, the viability of yeast cells was assessed by diluted sample inoculation to solid yeast-extract peptone glucose (YEPG) medium at 15-min intervals. At 45 min, the viability of yeast cells was estimated to be about 40%. Mutagenized cells were recovered from YEPG broth after incubation at 30 degrees C for 18 h. After this period, EMS-treated yeast cells were grown on solid aerobic low-peptone (ALP) medium containing 2-12% (v/v) ethanol. All plates were incubated at 30 degrees C for 2-6 d in order to form colonies. The mutant strains that tolerated high concentrations of ethanol were selected for bioethanol production in microfuge tubes containing fermentation medium. Formation of bioethanol in small tubes was detected by the distillation-colorimetric method. In addition, trehalose content and invertase activity were determined in each mutant strain. Among many isolated mutant strains, there were six isolated colonies that grew on ALP medium supplemented with 10% (v/v) ethanol and one of them produced bioethanol 17.3% more than the wild type.