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Fission Yeasts
1 genus · 1 species
Schizosaccharomycetes is the small class of fission yeasts. Unlike baker's yeast, which buds, these rod-shaped yeasts grow at their tips and divide by splitting down the middle into two equal cells. Despite looking like ordinary yeasts, they belong to an early-branching lineage of Ascomycota (Taphrinomycotina) that is only distantly related to the budding yeasts. The class contains a single order and the genus Schizosaccharomyces, whose species S. pombe was first isolated from East African millet beer and is now a major model organism in cell biology.
Unicellular, rod-shaped yeasts that grow at the cell tips and divide by medial fission rather than budding. Mostly haploid; under starvation, cells of opposite mating type fuse and the zygote undergoes meiosis to form an ascus of four haploid spores in S. pombe. One order (Schizosaccharomycetales).
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