Schizosaccharomycetales

SCHIZOSACCHAROMYCETALES
By: Muqaddas Fatima Hashmi

Roll no 01
BS Botany 5th Semester
Higher Fungi
Classification:
Kingdom Fungi
Division Ascomycota
Class Schizosaccharomycetes
Order Schizosaccharomycetales
Family Schizosaccharomycetaceae
Genus Schizosaccharomyces
Characters:
 Called as “Fission Yeasts”
 Asexual reproduction by Fission
 Asci fuse to form group of 4 or 8 ascospores
 Saprotrophic in fruit juice
Species:
 Four schizosaccharomyces species have been
described:
 S.pombe
 S.japonicus
 S.octosporus
 S.cryophilus
Schizosaccharomyces pombe
 Paul Lindner (1861-1944) was a German chemist and
microbiologist, best known for discovering the fission
yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe.
 Lindner isolated it from samples of Bantu Beer, a type of
East African millet beer in 1893.
 Pombe was named after Swahili word for Beer.
 He called it peculiar yeast and called it fission yeast due
to lack of asexual reproduction through budding.
 A species of yeast used in traditional brewing and as a
model organism in molecular and cell biology.
 A unicellular eukaryote .
 Rod shaped cells.
 Cells typically measure 3 to 4 micrometers in
diameter.
 7 to 14 micrometers in length.
 Cells maintain their shapes by growing
extensively through the cell tips.
 Divide by medial fission to produce two
daughter cells of equal size, which makes them
a powerful tool in cell cycle research.
Division Stages In Fission Yeast:
 Approximately 160 natural strains of S.pombe
have been isolated.
 Majority are collected from cultivated fruits
such as apples and grapes ,or from alcoholic
beverages .
 It is also known to be present in fermented tea,
Kombucha.
 On basis of protein and DNA sequence data,
appears to be an ancient ascomycete .
(divergence 350 million years ago)
Life cycle
 Life cycle consist of asexual(vegetative) and
sexual phases.
 Divide by medial fission
 Division cycle is quite rapid.
 Generation time between 2 and 4 hours.
 At 36 to 25 degree centigrade.
 Easy and inexpensive to grow fission yeast and
manipulate the cells in laboratory.
 S.pombe cells are cylindrical in shape with roughly
hemispherical ends.
 About 3.5 micrometer in diameter during
exponential growth.
 Newborn cells are 8 micrometer in length.
 When cells reach about 15 micrometer in length,
they undergo mitosis.
 Shortly after nuclear division, a transverse septum is
laid down medially, which is then cleaved to form
two daughter cells.
 The two daughter cells are nearly equal in size.
 When subjected to nutrient starvation, in absence of
mating partner, haploid cell leaves cell cycle and
enter stationary phase.
 The central events of cell reproduction are
chromosome duplication, which takes place in
S phase, followed by chromosome segregation
and nuclear division and cell division
(cytokinesis) which are collectively called M
phase (mitotic).
 G 1 is the gap between M and S phase , G2 is
the gap between S and M phase.
 In fission yeast, G2 phase is particularly
extended and cytokinesis (daughter cell
segregation) does not happen until a new S
(synthetic) phase is launched.
Sexual cycle and mating type system:
 In presence of mating partner, haploid cells
shift from vegetative growth to sexual cycle.
 Two haploid cells respond to nutrient
starvation by mating .
 Conjugation take place and nucleus fuse to
form diploid nucleus.
 Zygote formed ,a single cell consisting of single
diploid nucleus.
 Nuclei enters meiotic pathway ( Meiosis I and
Meiosis II ) and four haploid nuclei generated.
Sporulation:
 A spore wall forms around each nucleus to produce an
ascus consisting of four spores within the shell of
zygote.
 These are called zygotic asci.
 If nutrients are restored, these spores will germinate
and re-enter the mitotic cell cycle.
Azygotic asci:
 They are derived from diploid vegetative cells.
 They are short and linear.
 Zygote can resume vegetative growth and form
colonies of diploid cells if returned to rich media before
commitment to meiosis.
Comparison of S.pombe and
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
 The yeast species Schizosaccharomyces pombe and
Saccharomyces cerevisiae are both extensively studied;
these two species diverged approximately 300 to 600
million years before present, and are significant tools
in molecular and cellular biology. Some of the
technical discriminants between these two species are:
 S. cerevisiae has 16 chromosomes, S. pombe has 3.
 S. cerevisiae is in the G1 phase of the cell cycle for an
extended period, while S. pombe remains in the G2
phase of the cell cycle for an extended period.
 Both species share genes with higher eukaryotes that
they do not share with each other.
Importance of fission yeast:
 As a model system:
 Fission yeast has become a notable model system to

study basic principles of a cell that can be used to
understand more complex organisms like mammals and
in particular humans.
 Non pathogenic, easily grown and manipulated in
laboratory.
 Many of genes responsible for cell division and cellular
organization in fission yeast cell are also found in human
genome.
 Fission yeast conserved genes have been easily studied
and the reason for many biomedical developments.
 It also has an extremely short generation time,
2 to 4 hours which also make it an easy model
system to observe and grow in laboratory.
 Fission yeast simplicity in genomic structure
yet similarities with mammalian gene, ease of
ability to manipulate and ability to be used for
drug analysis is why fission yeast is making
contributions to biomedicine and cellular
biology research and a model system for
genetic analysis.
Genome:
 S.pombe is often used to study cell division and
growth because of conserved genomic regions
also seen in human including, heterochromatin
proteins, large origins of replication, large
centromeres, and many other cellular
processes.
 Contains one of smallest number of genes of
known genomic sequence for a eukaryote.
 Has only 3 chromosomes in its genome.
Genetic diversity:
 Biodiversity and evolutionary study of fission yeast
was carried out on 161 strains of Schizosaccharomyces
pombe collected from 20 countries.
 Modeling of the evolutionary rate showed that all
strains derived from a common ancestor that has lived
since ~2,300 years ago.
 A number of studies on S.pombe genome support the
idea that the genetic diversity of fission yeast strains is
slightly less than budding yeast.
 In addition, the amount of phenotypic variation
segregating in fission yeast is less than that seen, in S.
cerevisiae.
Cell cycle analysis:
 DNA replication in yeast has been increasingly studied by
many researchers.
 Further understanding of DNA replication, gene expression,
and conserved mechanisms in yeast can provide researchers
with information on how these systems operate in
mammalian cells in general and human cells in particular.
 Other stages, such as cellular growth and aging, are also
observed in yeast in order to understand these mechanisms
in more complex systems.
 Fission yeast is a practical model example to observe cell
division because fission yeast are cylindrically shaped single
celled eukaryotes that divide and reproduce by medial
fission. This can easily be seen under microscope.
Experimental approaches:
 Firstly, developed as an experimental model for studying in 1950 by
Levpold for studying genetics and by Murdoch Mitchison for
studying cell cycle.
 Fission yeast is easily accessible, easily grown and manipulated to
make mutants, and able to be maintained at either a haploid or
diploid state.
 S. pombe is normally a haploid cell but, when put under stressful
conditions, usually nitrogen deficiency, two cells will conjugate to
form a diploid that later form four spores within a tetrad ascus.
 This process is easily visible and observable under any microscope
and allows us to look at meiosis in a simpler model system to see how
this phenomenon operates.
 Studies of S.pombe together with study of its distant cousin
Saccharomyces cerevisiae had led to discovery of genes involved in
fundamental mechanisms of transcription, translation, DNA
replication, cell cycle control , signal transduction and many more.
Brewing industry:
 There are certain yeasts which deserve great
attention due to great potential they have when it
comes to making certain changes in composition of
wine.
 Among them, S.pombe stands out for its particular
metabolism that give it certain abilities such as
regulating the acidity of wine through fermentation.
 in addition, this specie is characterized by favoring
the formation of stable fragments in wine.
 This specie has shown promising results regarding
the production of stable color forms, thereby
ensuring color preservation in aged wines.
 Its use in wine making can also prevent
potential health risks associated with
metabolism of the lactic acid bacteria
responsible for malolactic fermentation.
 As a general conclusion, due to its great
resistance to pH, temperature, and
preservatives and its ability to ferment in
media with high sugar content, S.pombe is a
strain of great versatility with potential utility
not only in oenology but also in other sectors of
food industry.

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SCHIZOSACCHAROMYCETALES

By: Muqaddas Fatima Hashmi

 Fission yeast has become a notable model system to

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