The genetic maps of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe were extended through the use of haploidization (spontaneous or induced by m-fluorophenylalanine), as well as by tetrad, random spore and mitotic analysis. A new diploidization method utilizing a meiosis-deficient mutant and improved haploidization techniques was employed. As a result of these and previous studies, 118 genetic markers have been assigned to 3 linkage groups. Centromere markers for all 3 chromosomes were identified and genetic maps containing a total of 71 genes were constructed. Our experiments indicate that 3 is very likely to be the haploid chromosome number of S. pombe .