THE FISSION YEAST MICROTUBULE CYTOSKELETON

The Schizosaccharomyces pombe genome sequencing project (http://www.sa nger.ac.uk/Projects/S_pombe/) is nearly complete, and this is likely t o generate interest in fission yeast as a model system beyond its trad itional strongholds in the study of the cell cycle and sexual differen tiation. In many fields S. pombe will offer a useful complement to the more widely studied Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but in some areas the i mpact of S. pombe may well rival or exceed that of this budding yeast in terms of relevance to higher systems. Because of the considerable d ifferences from the S. cerevisiae microtubule cytoskeleton, studying m icrotubules in S. pombe is likely to enhance the contribution of model systems to our understanding of the principles and practices of micro tubule organisation in eukaryotes in general.