''Schizosaccharomyces'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
fission yeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...
s. The most well-studied species is ''
S. pombe
''Schizosaccharomyces pombe'', also called "fission yeast", is a species of yeast used in traditional brewing and as a model organism in molecular and cell biology. It is a unicellular eukaryote, whose cells are rod-shaped. Cells typically measur ...
''.
At present five Schizosaccharomyces species have been described (''
S. pombe
''Schizosaccharomyces pombe'', also called "fission yeast", is a species of yeast used in traditional brewing and as a model organism in molecular and cell biology. It is a unicellular eukaryote, whose cells are rod-shaped. Cells typically measur ...
'', ''S. japonicus'', ''S. octosporus'', ''S. cryophilus'' and ''S. osmophilus''). Like the distantly related ''
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'' () (brewer's yeast or baker's yeast) is a species of yeast (single-celled fungus microorganisms). The species has been instrumental in winemaking, baking, and brewing since ancient times. It is believed to have b ...
'', ''S. pombe'' is a significant
model organism in the study of eukaryotic cell biology. It is particularly useful in evolutionary studies because it is thought to have diverged from the ''
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'' () (brewer's yeast or baker's yeast) is a species of yeast (single-celled fungus microorganisms). The species has been instrumental in winemaking, baking, and brewing since ancient times. It is believed to have b ...
'' lineage between 300 million and 1 billion years ago, and thus provides an evolutionarily distant comparison.
See also
*
Yeast in winemaking
The role of yeast in winemaking is the most important element that distinguishes wine from fruit juice. In the :wikt:anaerobic, absence of oxygen, yeast converts the sugar in wine, sugars of the fruit into ethanol, alcohol and carbon dioxide throu ...
References
External links
diArk - Schizosaccharomyces
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1317935
Yeasts
Ascomycota
Yeasts used in brewing