Glycolytic inhibitors are of interest therapeutically as they are effective against cancers that display increased glycolytic rate and mitochondrial defects. 2-Deoxyglucose (2-DG) is one such glycolytic inhibitor and was identified to be a competitive inhibitor of glucose. Studies from past few decades have shown that the mechanism of action of 2-DG is complex involving several metabolic and signaling pathways. Budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe are two important models for studying metabolism, cell cycle and cell signaling. These two unicellular eukaryotes are Crabtree positive yeasts exhibiting a metabolism similar to that of cancer cells. Effects of 2-DG in yeast is of interest owing to these similarities and hence yeasts have emerged as ideal model organisms to study the mode of action and resistance to 2-DG. In this review, we summarize the studies on biological effect and resistance to 2-DG in budding and fission yeasts and give an insight into its possible mechanism of action as models for understanding cancer metabolism and drugs affecting cancer progression. © 2017 IUBMB Life, 69(3):137-147, 2017.