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Updated: Oct 30, 2025

Examination of Mitotic and Meiotic Fission Yeast Nuclear Dynamics by Fluorescence Live-cell Microscopy
Published on: June 24, 2019
The Multiple Functions of Rho GTPases in Fission Yeasts
Jero Vicente-Soler1, Teresa Soto1, Alejandro Franco1
1Yeast Physiology Group, Departamento de Genética y Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain.
Abstract:
The Rho family of GTPases represents highly conserved molecular switches involved in a plethora of physiological processes. Fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe has become a fundamental model organism to study the functions of Rho GTPases over the past few decades. In recent years, another fission yeast species, Schizosaccharomyces japonicus, has come into focus offering insight into evolutionary changes within the genus. Both fission yeasts contain only six Rho-type GTPases that are spatiotemporally controlled by multiple guanine-nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) and GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs), and whose intricate regulation in response to external cues is starting to be uncovered. In the present review, we will outline and discuss the current knowledge and recent advances on how the fission yeasts Rho family GTPases regulate essential physiological processes such as morphogenesis and polarity, cellular integrity, cytokinesis and cellular differentiation.
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