Preface/Front Matter

Abstract

At the Molecular Biology of Yeast meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1979, it was apparent that investigation of the biology of yeast was in a period of rapid and exciting growth. The meeting was alive with excitement over the fruits to accrue from the union of the developing technologies in molecular biology with the elegant genetic and phenomenological studies possible in yeast. Jim Watson perceived that it was an appropriate time to review the biology of yeast and attempt to define the direction in which the field would progress in the 1980s. He encouraged us to assemble this monograph.

Most of the volumes in the Cold Spring Harbor Monograph Series are organized as a combination of reviews and research papers. We felt, however, that the core of accumulated knowledge in yeast molecular biology was too large and the rate at which new information was being added was too rapid for the field to be covered adequately in a research paper format. Therefore, we decided to limit the monograph to reviews that would provide both a background in yeast molecular biology and an indication of the direction in which individual areas were proceeding. Our basic goal was about 24 reviews in about 750 pages, to be published in late 1980. The vigor of the field has been reflected in the rapid expansion of this monograph. The reviews have been divided into two volumes, which together will number nearly 1400 pages. In this volume, the cell cycle, the life cycle,