Download Biology Activity 5 yeast

Is curing cancer really as simple as Schizosaccharomyces pombe?
Target Audience
AS Biology students who wish to develop their knowledge of the uses of the fission yeast,
Schizosaccharomyces pombe, as a model organism in today’s cancer research community.
Key Concepts
Fission yeast, mutations, genetic manipulations, cancer, the cell cycle, checkpoints
The Activity
One gram of yeast contains 20,000,000,000 (twenty billion) single-celled living micro-organisms.
Man has exploited the properties of yeast for centuries. In this activity you are going to be
investigating useful properties of fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, a yeast routinely used
in biological research to unravel the mysteries of the cell cycle and its involvement in the
progression of cancer. Why is this organism used for cell cycle and Cancer research? Why is
it such a powerful molecular biology tool?
Background Knowledge
Knowledge of yeast and its properties and the phases of the cell cycle would be an advantage.
Resources
• A useful resource on fission yeast is http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~forsburg/ - you will be able to find
others
• If you need to expand your understanding of the cell cycle, try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_cycle
Outcomes
There are a number of ways you can present your findings to the rest of your group and you may want
to check with your teacher which would be appropriate. You could create a profile for yeast in the style
of a criminal profile in a crime investigation. Why not put yeast on ‘trial’ in a mock court situation with
your peers, for example S. pombe vs S. cerevisiae.
Helpful hints
Remember to use different methodologies for collecting your data, for example spider diagrams.
• What is the cell cycle?
• What is yeast?
• What is yeast used for in research science and why?
• Fission yeast is a powerful tool in the cell cycle research platform.
• Cancer is a result of the cell cycle being out of control in one way or another due to mutations
that originate in a single cell.
Going further
The fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe is a widely used organism in a number of research
technologies. The genomes of a number of different yeast species have been sequenced, for example
Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and it is quick and easy to manipulate yeast. Why, therefore, is fission
yeast the organism of choice in the cell cycle and Cancer research environment?
This site contains a number of links that will aid your understanding.
http://www.yk.rim.or.jp/~aisoai/spom.html.