The high fermentation rate of Saccharomyces cerevisiae sake yeast strains is attributable to a loss-of-function mutation in the RIM15 gene, which encodes a Greatwall-family protein kinase that is conserved among eukaryotes. In the present study, we performed intracellular metabolic profiling analysis and revealed that deletion of the RIM15 gene in a laboratory strain impaired glucose-anabolic pathways through the synthesis of UDP-glucose (UDPG). Although Rim15p is required for the synthesis of trehalose and glycogen from UDPG upon entry of cells into the quiescent state, we found that Rim15p is also essential for the accumulation of cell wall -glucans, which are also anabolic products of UDPG. Furthermore, the impairment of UDPG or 1,3--glucan synthesis contributed to an increase in the fermentation rate. Transcriptional induction of PGM2 (phosphoglucomutase) and UGP1 (UDPG pyrophosphorylase) was impaired in Rim15p-deficient cells in the early stage of fermentation. These findings demonstrate that the decreased anabolism of glucose into UDPG and 1,3--glucan triggered by a defect in the Rim15p-mediated upregulation of PGM2 and UGP1 redirects the glucose flux into glycolysis. Consistent with this, sake yeast strains with defective Rim15p exhibited impaired expression of PGM2 and UGP1 and decreased levels of -glucans, trehalose, and glycogen during sake fermentation. We also identified a sake yeast-specific mutation in the glycogen synthesis-associated glycogenin gene GLG2, supporting the conclusion that the glucose-anabolic pathway is impaired in sake yeast. These findings demonstrate that downregulation of the UDPG synthesis pathway is a key mechanism accelerating alcoholic fermentation in industrially utilized S. cerevisiae sake strains. S ake yeast strains, which belong to the species Saccharomyces cerevisiae, are capable of achieving ethanol yields as high as 22 vol% in fermenting sake mash (1-3). This characteristic phenotype is attributed in part to their high and sustained maximum fermentation rates, as observed in batch cultures containing high concentrations of glucose (4), and is due to the continuous supply of fermentable sugars to yeast cells in sake mash via the degradation of rice starch by enzymes produced by Aspergillus oryzae. In recent studies of the representative sake yeast strain Kyokai no. 7 (K7) and its relatives, we revealed that several stress-and/or nutrient-responsive transcription factors, particularly Msn2p and Msn4p (Msn2/4p), Hsf1p, Adr1p, and Cat8p, are significantly inactivated (5-7). Impairment of these transcriptional activators in laboratory strains of S. cerevisiae leads to increased fermentation rates, indicating that defective stress responses are linked with the superior fermentation properties of sake yeast (2, 5-7). Moreover, a loss-of-function mutation by insertion of an A residue at position 5055 in the RIM15 gene (rim15 5055insA ) was commonly found among K7-related strains (8). RIM15 encodes a conserved Greatwall-like protein kinase involved in the control of mitot...