the Pom1 gradient does not reach the cortical nodes (red dots), and therefore Cdr2 and Cdr1 remain active in the nodes. Cdr2 and Cdr1 inhibit Wee1, preventing phosphorylation of Cdk1 and thereby leading to activation of CDK and mitotic entry. (This simplified diagram omits several other regulators of CDK activity.) Mating-type switching Fission yeast switches mating type by a replication-coupled recombination event, which takes place during S phase of the cell cycle. Fission yeast uses intrinsic asymmetry of the DNA replication process to switch the mating type; it was the first system where the direction of replication was shown to be required for the change of the cell type. Studies of the mating-type switching system lead to a discovery and characterization of a site-specific replication termination site RTS1, a site-specific replication pause site MPS1, and a novel type of chromosomal imprint, marking one of the sister chromatids at the mating-type locus mat1. In addition, work on the silenced donor region has led to great advances in understanding formation and maintenance of heterochromatin. Responses to DNA damage Schizosaccharomyces pombe is a facultative sexual microorganism that can undergo mating when nutrients are limiting. Exposure of S. pombe to hydrogen peroxide, an agent that causes oxidative stress leading to oxidative DNA damage, strongly induces mating and formation of meiotic spores. This finding suggests that meiosis, and particularly meiotic recombination, may be an adaptation for repairing DNA damage. Supporting this view is the finding that single base lesions of the type dU:dG in the DNA of S. pombe stimulate meiotic recombination. This recombination requires uracil-DNA glycosylase, an enzyme that removes uracil from the DNA backbone and initiates base excision repair. On the basis of this finding, it was proposed that base excision repair of either a uracil base, an abasic site, or a single-strand nick is sufficient to initiate recombination in S. pombe. Other experiments with S. pombe indicated that faulty processing of DNA replication intermediates, i.e. Okazaki fragments, causes DNA damages such as single-strand nicks or gaps, and that these stimulate meiotic recombination. As a model system Fission yeast has become a notable model system to study basic principles of a cell that can be used to understand more complex organisms like mammals and in particular humans. This single cell eukaryote is nonpathogenic and easily grown and manipulated in the lab. Fission yeast contains one of the smallest numbers of genes of a