BOOK REVIEWS
The awesome power of
yeast genetics practical approaches
and recipes for success
Methods in Yeast Genetics:
A Cold Spring Harbor
Laboratory Course Manual,
2000 Edition
by Dan Burke, Dean Dawson and
Tim Stearns
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (2000) 205
pages. ISBN 0-87969-588-9
$75
Budding yeast has become a widely
used model organism since the early
days following its establishment as a
workable genetic system in a small
number of laboratories. Over the past 30
years, the number of laboratories
turning to yeast as the means to apply
powerful genetic approaches to dissect
complex problems in cell biology has
burgeoned, and the renowned Cold
Spring Harbor Yeast Genetics Course
developed in order to preach the
methodology of yeast genetics to the
scientific community. The latest
reincarnation of the Cold Spring Harbor
Laboratory Methods in Yeast Genetics
is, like its predecessors, a useful mix of
experimental protocols for the budding
yeast geneticist and details of the 11
experiments that constituted the latest
course. With its colourful cover
2551
(demonstrating the viability staining kit
of a well-known molecular biology
company) and its revised, more
professional-looking appearance, it
provides a compendium of essential
methods for those making forays into
the world of Saccharomyces cerevisiae
genetics. A useful introduction and a
section on genetic nomenclature is
followed by descriptions of the 11
experiments, then a section with
detailed, step-by-step protocols, and
finally a series of appendices with
recipes for standard media and other
information.
The 11 experiments cover the majority
of practical approaches that form the
repertoire of the yeast geneticist and
provide a framework around which
researchers can tailor these procedures
to their own situations. For newcomers
to yeast, they include a lot of the basic
practical detail that would never be
found in the materials and methods
section of a paper. Although billed as a
genetics manual, the book’s remit is
actually somewhat wider, covering a
number of basic yeast cell biology
approaches
such
as
immunofluorescence microscopy and flow
cytometry. Its organisation, with the
step-by-step protocols for the basic
techniques used in the experiments
presented as a separate reference
section, is good. For each experiment,
the experimental details themselves are
supplemented by a useful introductory
section, which provides essential
background explanation. The inclusion
throughout the book of useful hints and
tips will be particularly helpful to
beginners. If the book has a
shortcoming, it is that, by being
essentially the instruction manual for a
short, intensive practical course, it
glosses over some of the finer points of
the methods, details that a researcher
would normally need to consider. For
example, the chapter on synthetic lethal
screening omits discussion of the
additional steps needed to screen out
false positives, to validate the synthetic
lethal mutations or to clone the
corresponding genes. In addition, while
the protocols are generally well
explained, some of the experiments
assume that the reader can readily work
out the purpose of each step. For
example, while the chapter on meiotic
mapping contains a great introduction
that clearly explains the relevant theory,
the basis underlying the analysis of the
meiotic progeny in the actual
experiment, as presented, is really quite
obscure. To be useful to a complete
yeast novice, a bit more explanation of
such points would be helpful, as would
more illustrations, details of the
suppliers of specialist items such as
‘froggers’ and tetrad dissection
equipment (who really wants to make
their own needles anyway?), and
perhaps a binding more conducive for
use at the bench. The book does not set
out to be an exhaustive reference
volume on everything to do with yeast
genetics, but is a straightforward guide
to approaching the core repertoire of
contemporary genetic methodologies,
showing how each can be applied in a
suitable context. Given that we are in
the post-genomics era, there is
surprisingly little mention of genomic
approaches such as DNA arrays, but
these will no doubt be included in
subsequent versions as they appear in
the course itself. Nonetheless, the book
is a very useful work, which brings
together a lot of basic information and
protocols and which no lab working on
yeast should be without. It provides a
good starting point for the novice and a
useful reference for the more
experienced.
As confessed by the authors in their
preface, the 2000 edition of this useful
manual owes much to the previous
version; so need owners of the 1997
edition go for the upgrade? Apart from
relatively minor improvements to the
presentation, the only major changes
to the experiments themselves are the
dropping of the section on cytoduction
and karyogamy in favour of the more
topical chapter on synthetic lethal
screening, together with a revamping
of the chapter on insertional
mutagenesis with mTn3 transposons.
However, there are more significant
changes in the techniques section,
with ten additional sections including
details on chromatin immunoprecipitation, flow cytometry and cell
synchrony, and additional, helpful
comments on techniques such as tetrad
dissection. Some of these new
protocols are not actually used in any
of the 11 experiments but are,
2552
JOURNAL OF CELL SCIENCE 114 (14)
nonetheless, valuable additions that
greatly improve the 2000 version. If
you use your existing edition largely
as a recipe book for media and basic
reagents,
then
you
may
be
disappointed with the new version. If,
like me, you have found that the 1997
version is already falling apart
through constant use, then you may
just lament the lack of a spiral binding
and go for the new one anyway.
However, as an introduction to the
practicalities
of
yeast
genetic
approaches, the improved presentation,
improved
content
and
additional protocols do make the 2000
version a useful addition to the shelf
of any budding yeast researcher, and a
valuable resource
members.
for
new
Michael J. R. Stark
Division of Gene Regulation and
Expression, School of Life Sciences,
University of Dundee, UK
Journal of Cell Science 114, 2551-2552 (2001)
© The Company of Biologists Ltd
Commentaries
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The heterogeneity of focal adhesions Benjamin Geiger
mRNA localization Robert Singer
MAP kinase cascades and scaffold proteins Roger J. Davis
The molecular biology of the centriole Susan Dutcher
Interactions between Ras- and Rho-dependent signalling pathways in cell
transformation Chris Marshall
Organelle dynamics Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz
Spindle asymmetry Andrea Brand
N-CoR and related transcriptional repressors Mike Rosenfeld
Microtubule regulation of Rac and Rho Clare Waterman-Storer
Intercellular junctions and cell signalling in Dictyostelium Adrian Harwood
Mini spindles and its homologues Hiro Ohkura
Tensegrity Donald Ingber
Interactions of kinesin motors with cargo Bruce Schnapp
Lipid-partitioning and the insertion of membrane proteins Vishwanath Lingappa
Why muscle myosin has two heads Mike Reedy
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