Analysis of Heterochromatin in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Abstract

This introduction briefly describes the biology of heterochromatin in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We highlight some of the salient features of fission yeast that render it an excellent unicellular eukaryote for studying heterochromatin. We then discuss key aspects of heterochromatin that are of interest to those in the field, and last we introduce experimental approaches often used to investigate heterochromatin.