Saccharomyces cerevisiae is used in a variety of valuable industrial processes. Its ability to grow and replicate utilizing aerobic respiration or fermentation, and its ability to survive without functional mitochondria, provide opportunities to control or alter mitochondrial function to optimize production processes or develop novel cellular subsystems in the mitochondrial space. To begin exploring these opportunities, we adapted two commonly used yeast expression vectors to the RFC 10 standard and used them to express yEGFP preceded by the mitochondrial localization signal from the mitoribosomal protein mRPS12. In addition, we attempted to demonstrate that aerobic respiration can be controlled by manipulating the expression of mRPS12. Without mRPS12, yeast mitochondria lack a functioning ribosome and become unable to produce proteins necessary for aerobic respiration. By expressing the mRPS12 protein in a haploid mRPS12 knockout strain, we investigated its usefulness as a means of regulating aerobic respiration in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.