What's in a genome? The short answer is that you can't really say in detail for any one species until you have the genome sequences of a variety of other species―some closely related, others less so―to compare it with. While the human and mouse genomes have lately dominated public discussions of genome science, yeast researchers have quietly continued to forge ahead with analysing Saccharomyces cere-visiae and related yeast species. Yeast has long been a favourite of biologists, who use it as a model for investigating the biology of higher organisms. Although yeasts are unicellular, like bacteria, they have a cell nucleus, putting them in the biological kingdom of eukary-otes (Eukaryota), a group that includes humans. Yeast was the first eukaryote to have its genome completely sequenced, in 1996. And yeast has long been a part of human commerce and culture, being used in brewing and baking since ancient times. Saccharomyces cerevisiae itself was first isolated in beer in 1837.
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