Genetic control of fission yeast cell wall synthesis: the genes involved in wall biogenesis and their interactions in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

The fungal cell wall is an essential structure which protects cells from va rious environmental stresses such as hyper- or hypo-osmosis, and endows the m with specific morphology in response to their life or cell division cycle . In addition, the cell wall has a variety of enzymatic activities per se, which are required for nutritional uptake, secretion, and cell adhesion inc luding mating processes. In addition to these cytological interests, clinic al demands to clarify the regulatory mechanisms of cell wall synthesis have been increasing, since the cell wall is a unique and effective target of a ntifungal agents. However, the molecular mechanisms are poorly understood a t present, although the role of several signal transduction pathways have r ecently been implicated in regulation. In this review, the author focuses o n genes and their interactions which are involved in fission yeast cell wal l biogenesis.