New concepts in fission yeast morphogenesis

The ability to generate spatial form is a fundamental characteristic of all living organisms, which has been much studied by successive generations of developmental biologists. In recent years increasing numbers of cell biolo gists have turned their attention to the mechanisms by which cells generate their spatial form. These include the mechanisms that position components in different place within the cell, that specify the position of these comp onents, and that generate the overall shape of these components. These prob lems are entirely analogous to those studied by developmental biologists, a lthough usually at the level of the whole organism, organ or tissue. Becaus e the organization of all cells is basically similar, it is possible that t he concepts and the underlying molecular mechanisms of cell morphogenesis m ay be highly conserved. In this article we consider the generation of spati al form within the fission yeast cell, focusing on emerging new concepts, w hich may be applicable to the morphogenesis of other cells.