CELL POLARITY AND MORPHOGENESIS IN BUDDING YEAST

Eukaryotic cells respond to intracellular and extracellular cues to di rect asymmetric cell growth and division. The yeast Saccharomyces cere visiae undergoes polarized growth at several times during budding and mating and is a useful model organism for studying asymmetric growth a nd division. In recent years, many regulatory and cytoskeletal compone nts important for directing and executing growth have been identified, and molecular mechanisms have been elucidated in yeast. Key signaling pathways that regulate polarization during the cell cycle and mating response have been described. Since many of the components important f or polarized cell growth are conserved in other organisms, the basic m echanisms mediating polarized cell growth are likely to be universal a mong eukaryotes.