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Fast Breaking Comments

By Valerie Wood

ESI Special Topics, December 2002
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/fbp/comments/december02-ValerieWood.html

Valerie Wood answers a few questions about this month's fast breaking paper in the field of Molecular Biology & Genetics.

From •>>December 2002

 Field: Molecular Biology & Genetics
Article Title: "The genome sequence of Schizosaccharomyces pombe"
 Authors: Wood, V;Gwilliam, R;Rajandream, MA;Lyne, M;Lyne, R;Stewart, A;Sgouros, J;Peat, N;Hayles, J;Baker, S;Basham, D;Bowman, S;Brooks, K;Brown, D;Brown, S;Chillingworth, T;Churcher, C;Collins, M;Connor, R;Cronin, A;Davis, P;Feltwell, T;Fraser, A;Gentles, S;Goble, A;Hamlin, N;Harris, D;Hidalgo, J;Hodgson, G;Holroyd, S;Hornsby, T;Howarth, S;Huckle, EJ;Hunt, S;Jagels, K;James, K;Jones, L;Jones, M;Leather, S;McDonald, S;McLean, J;Mooney, P;Moule, S;Mungall, K;Murphy, L;Niblett, D;Odell, C;Oliver, K;O'Neil, S;Pearson, D;Quail, MA;Rabbinowitsch, E;Rutherford, K;Rutter, S;Saunders, D;Seeger, K;Sharp, S;Skelton, J;Simmonds, M;Squares, R;Squares, S;Stevens, K;Taylor, K;Taylor, RG;Tivey, A;Walsh, S;Warren, T;Whitehead, S;Woodward, J;Volckaert, G;Aert, R;Robben, J;Grymonprez, B;Weltjens, I;Vanstreels, E;Rieger, M;Schafer, M;Muller-Auer, S;Gabel, C;Fuchs, M;Düsterhöft, A;Fritzc, C;Holzer, E;Moestl, D;Hilbert, H;Borzym, K;Langer, I;Beck, A;Lehrach, H;Reinhardt, R;Pohl, TM;Eger, P;Zimmermann, W;Wedler, H;Wambutt, R;Purnelle, B;Goffeau, A;Cadieu, E;Dreano, S;Gloux, S;Lelaure, V;Mottier, S;Galibert, F;Aves, SJ;Xiang, Z;Hunt, C;Moore, K;Hurst, SM;Lucas, M;Rochet, M;Gaillardin, C;Tallada, VA;Garzon, A;Thode, G;Daga, RR;Cruzado, L;Jimenez, J;Sanchez, M;del Rey, F;Benito, J;Dominguez, A;Revuelta, JL;Moreno, S;Armstrong, J;Forsburg, SL;Cerutti, L;Lowe, T;McCombie, WR;Paulsen, I;Potashkin, J;Shpakovski, GV;Ussery, D;Barrell, BG;Nurse, P
Journal: NATURE
Volume: 415
Page: 871-880
Year: FEB 21 2002
* Wellcome Trust Sanger Inst, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge CB10 1SA, England.
* Wellcome Trust Sanger Inst, Cambridge CB10 1SA, England.
* Canc Res UK London Res Inst, Computat Genome Anal Lab, London WC2A 3PX, England.
* Canc Res UK London Res Inst, Cell Cycle Lab, London WC2A 3PX, England.
* Katholieke Univ Leuven, Fac Agr & Appl Biol Sci, Lab Gene Technol, B-3001 Louvain, Belgium.
* Genotype GmbH, Mol Biol & Biotech Res, D-69259 Wilhelmsfeld, Germany.
* QIAGEN GmbH, D-40724 Hilden, Germany.
* Max Planck Inst Mol Genet, D-14195 Berlin, Germany.
* GATC Biotech AG, D-78467 Constance, Germany.
* AGOWA GmbH, D-12489 Berlin, Germany.
* Univ Catholique Louvain, Unite Biochim Physiol, B-1348 Louvain, Belgium.
* Fac Med, UMR CNRS Genet & Dev 6061, F-35043 Rennes, France.
* Univ Exeter, Sch Biol Sci, Washington Singer Labs, Exeter EX4 4QG, Devon, England.
* Inst Natl Agron Paris Grignon, INRA, CNRS, URA1925, UMR216, F-78850 Thiverval Grignon, France.
* Univ Malaga, Fac Ciencias, Dept Genet, E-29071 Malaga, Spain.
* Univ Pablo de Olavide, Lab Andaluz Biol, Seville, Spain.
* Univ Salamanca, Edificio Dept, CSIC, Dept Microbiol & Genet, Inst Microbiol & Bioquim, Salamanca 37007, Spain.
* Univ Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, E Sussex, England.
* Salk Inst Biol Studies, Mol & Cell Biol Lab, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA.
* Stanford Univ, Sch Med, Dept Genet, Stanford, CA 94305 USA.
* Cold Spring Harbor Lab, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724 USA.
* TIGR, Rockville, MD 20850 USA.
* Finch Univ Hlth Sci Chicago Med Sch, N Chicago, IL 60064 USA.
* Russian Acad Sci, Shemyakin Ovchinnikov Inst Bioorgan Chem, Moscow 117997, Russia.
* Tech Univ Denmark, Bioctr DTU, Ctr Biol Sequence Anal, DK-2800 Kgs Lyngby, Denmark.

ST:  Why do you think your paper is highly cited?

This paper provides aspects of interest for researchers from many areas of biology and has already elicited citations from publications in the fields of evolutionary biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, crystallography, bioinformatics, software applications, and genome-wide analysis, both computational and experimental.

ST:  Does it describe a new discovery or a new methodology that's useful to others?

The publication of complete and annotated genome sequence of fission yeast (S. pombe) and the accompanying preliminary analysis has further established its role as an excellent model for the study of core eukaryotic functions and evolution. It provides an important additional resource for comparisons with other genomes. In addition, the availability of the genome is changing the way individual laboratories pursue research and design experiments.

ST:  What were some of the circumstances that led you to do this research?

The S. pombe sequencing project was initiated as a pilot project in 1995 by the Wellcome Trust; this generated approximately 3.8 Mb of sequence. In 1996 further funding was secured from the European Commission for the Sanger Institute and the 13 other laboratories making up the European Sequencing Consortium to complete the sequencing phase of the project.

ST:  Could you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?

The features which have made fission yeast an attractive model since the 1950s are reinforced and extended by the availability of the complete genome which, although compact, displays many of the features of higher eukaryotes.End

Valerie Wood
S. Pombe Genome Project
The Sanger Institute Wellcome Trust Genome Campus
Cambridge, England

ESI Special Topics, December 2002
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/fbp/comments/december02-ValerieWood.html

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