ABSTRACT
Fission is a vegetative form of reproduction characterized by the division of a parental cell into approximately equal daughter cells. It is characterized by the development of a cross wall without cell constriction. This chapter deals with Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the best known unicellular eukaryote multiplying by binary fission. It summarises the essential features of its envelope topography and considers the essential questions of polar growth together with septum formation. The chapter emphasis on the influence of cell cycle controls on cell wall extension and septation. Fluorescence microscopy as well as different methods of electron microscopy have been used to monitor cell wall structures of Schizosaccharomyces pombe cells during growth and division. Symmetrical cell division is a fundamental biological event; Schizosaccharomyces pombe is one of only a few model systems for investigating the genetic control of this process. Research on Schizosaccharomyces pombe is aided by facile distinction of the lateral cell wall and the septum by primulin staining.
