title: An Ancient Yeast for Young Geneticists: A Primer on the Schizosaccharomyces pombe Model System.
abstract: The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is an important model organism for the study of eukaryotic molecular and cellular biology. Studies of S. pombe, together with studies of its distant cousin, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, have led to the discovery of genes involved in fundamental mechanisms of transcription, translation, DNA replication, cell cycle control, and signal transduction, to name but a few processes. However, since the divergence of the two species approximately 350 million years ago, S. pombe appears to have evolved less rapidly than S. cerevisiae so that it retains more characteristics of the common ancient yeast ancestor, causing it to share more features with metazoan cells. This Primer introduces S. pombe by describing the yeast itself, providing a brief description of the origins of fission yeast research, and illustrating some genetic and bioinformatics tools used to study protein function in fission yeast. In addition, a section on some key differences between S. pombe and S. cerevisiae is included for readers with some familiarity with budding yeast research but who may have an interest in developing research projects using S. pombe.
authors.affiliation: Biology Department, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467 hoffmacs@bc.edu.
authors.forename: Charles S
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8700-1863
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Hoffman
authors.affiliation: Cambridge Systems Biology Centre and Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, CB2 1GA Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6330-7526
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, College of Science and Engineering, University of Edinburgh EH9 3JR Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Fantes
mesh_terms: D015825:Chromosomes, Fungal / Q000235:genetics*; D004249:DNA Damage / Q000235:genetics; D004261:DNA Replication / Q000235:genetics*; D016681:Genome, Fungal; D059765:Homologous Recombination / Q000235:genetics*; D008018:Life Cycle Stages / Q000235:genetics; D008957:Models, Genetic; D012106:Research; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: Model Organism Database; Primer; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Schizosaccharomyces pombe; education; fission yeast; forward genetics; genetic screen; model system