This review takes the historical perspective, pointing out some of the achievements that have transformed fission yeast into a highly versatile experimental model organism.
1893
Richard Egel
1895 H. Schiönning discovers the sexual nature of sporulation in
S. octosporus: "A new
and strange way of forming an ascus in a yeast".
1924 A. Osterwalder isolates S. pombe, str. liquefaciens from "sulfurized grape must"
in Switzerland later to become the cherished object of fission yeast genetics.
1950 Urs Leupold discovers the genetical basis for homothallism and heterothallism in
this yeast. The heterothallic derivatives are used to generate profound mutant
collections of biochemical markers, while homothallism remains a curiosity.
1957 Murdock Mitchison zooms in on "The growth of single cells", founding the cell
cycle branch of fission yeast research.
1968 Carsten Bresch uses the homothallic strain to systematically screen for non-
sporulating mutants, founding the branch of developmental genetics in
S. pombe.
1971 Herbert Gutz detects a ~10-fold marker effect on meiotic recombination in one of
his ade6 alleles, later assigned to a single base pair transversion.
1975 Paul Nurse merges the best of both schools of seminal S.
pombe research basic
genetics and cell cycle physiology thus opening Pandora's box of cdc etc.
1978 For a change, S. pombe refuses to cooperate and even Larry Olson cannot
produce synaptonemal complexes in meiotic preparations of this yeast.
1981 David Beach and Paul Nurse introduce molecular gene technology to
S. pombe
and modern publications begin to erupt at quasi-exponential rate.
In the second and more humble part of this lecture, the subtle mysteries of mating-type
genetics will be contemplated, such as the cassette mechanism of mating-type interconversion,
the regularity of switching patterns, the structural basis for heterothallic derivatives, and
selected examples of subsidiary gene functions.
Department of Genetics, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 2A, DK-1353
Copenhagen K, Denmark.
Tel: +45 3532 2101, Fax: + 45 3532 2113, E-mail:
recph@biobase.dk