Preparation of Synchronous Cultures of the Fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Abstract

Many of the advances that have been made in the understanding of cell division and mitotic controls have been achieved by cell cycle studies of yeast and an essential tool in many of these has been the production of synchronous cultures. These cultures have been made by a variety of techniques, some of which can be universally applied and others that have been developed to suit a particular cell type. The fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, has become a much favored organism for many of these studies, and the purpose of this chapter is to describe several of the methods that are currently available for the production of synchronous cultures in this yeast.