Genetic control of fission yeast cell wall synthesis: the genes involved in wall biogenesis and their interactions in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

The fungal cell wall is an essential structure which protects cells from various environmental stresses such as hyper- or hypo-osmosis, and endows them with specific morphology in response to their life or cell division cycle. In addition, the cell wall has a variety of enzymatic activities per se, which are required for nutritional uptake, secretion, and cell adhesion including mating processes. In addition to these cytological interests, clinical demands to clarify the regulatory mechanisms of cell wall synthesis have been increasing, since the cell wall is a unique and effective target of antifungal agents. However, the molecular mechanisms are poorly understood at present, although the role of several signal transduction pathways have recently been implicated in regulation. In this review, the author focuses on genes and their interactions which are involved in fission yeast cell wall biogenesis.