Tools and resources for Sz. pombe: a report from the 2006 European Fission Yeast Meeting.

Schizosaccharomyces pombe has always suffered from a relative paucity of tools and resources, particularly when compared to Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The European Fission Yeast Meeting, held in March 2006, brought together a significant proportion of the Sz. pombe research community, so it was an ideal opportunity to hold a discussion session on the future needs of those working on this model organism. While the session generated a consensus on the most essential requirements, it also demonstrated the frustrations and concerns of those working with Sz. pombe. The community was also briefed regarding the future transition of the current database (Sz. pombe GeneDB) to a fully-fledged Model Organism Database (MOD) to support the needs of both fission yeast and the broader scientific community.