Saccharomycetes cerevisiae

Unicellular Ascomycete yeast known as the baker's or brewer's yeast. Widely used as a simple eukaryotic model, particularly in recombinant DNA and cell cycle studies as well as in mating type and heterokaryon compatibility studies. It has most advantages of a prokaryotic system but is a true eukaryote. It is considered as the E.coli of the eukaryotes. S.cerevisiae can reproduce both asexually and sexually, and can be cultured in either the haploid or the diploid state. One major advantage of yeast is the ease with which specific gene disruptions, gene replacements, and gene retrievals can be accomplished. Its complete genome was sequenced in 1997 and contains 12,057,500 bp, 6,000 genes in 16 chromosomes. It is used in the creation of YACs. Link to S.cerevisiae website.