Yeast is one of the premier industrial microorganisms, because of its essential role in brewing, winemaking, baking, and fuel alcohol production. In addition, yeast has proven to be an excellent model organism for the study of a variety of biological problems involving the fields of genetics, molecular biology, cell biology and other disciplines within the biomedical and life sciences.

The complete genomes of the budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and the fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) have been determined and those of other yeasts are being sequenced at breath-taking speed. A major focus of current yeast research concerns genome-wide functional analysis-the development of tools and methods to decipher the functions of all the genes of an organism under a variety of environmental conditions. -- On-going groundbreaking work in the functional genomics of the budding and fission yeasts will assure their importance as model eukaryotes in the foreseeable future.

Resources such as yeast strains and DNA clones are absolutely necessary for a wide variety of yeast research. In the past, such resources were stored by individual researchers and were distributed by request. Establishment of a central yeast genetic resource center has been a goal of yeast researchers for many years in order to overcome the inherent inefficiency and inequities of such a system. Thus, the National BioResource Yeast Project was launched in 2002 by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

The purpose of the project is the systematic collection, storage, and dissemination of important yeast genetic resources including strains, plasmids, DNA libraries, and antibodies.

The physical infrastructure of the Yeast Genetic Resource Center (YGRC) is located at Osaka City University and Osaka University to provide the aforementioned services. A Steering Committee has been established to develop operational policies and to assure open communication between the Center and the yeast research community at large. An Advisory Board evaluates the activities of the YGRC on an annual basis and provides guidance and advice concerning various aspects of the project.



OYA Yoshikazu (The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Frontier Science) -Chairman-
AKADA Rinji (Yamaguchi University, Graduate School of Medicine)
ARAKI Hiroyuki (National Institute of Genetics, Division of Microbial Genetics)
OKAZAKI Koei (Kazusa DNA Research Institute)
OKUZAKI Daisuke (Osaka University, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases)
OGATA Tomoo (Asahi Breweries, LTD., Research Laboratories of Brewing Technology)
KANEKO Yoshinobu (Osaka University, Graduate School of Engineering)
KAWAMUKAI Makoto (Shimane University, Faculty of Life and Environmental Science)
KITAMURA Kenji (Hiroshima University, Natural Science Center for Basic Research and Development)
KITAMOTO Hiroko (National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences)
SHIMODA Chikashi (Osaka City University, Graduate School of Science)
TAKEGAWA Kaoru (Kyushu University, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences)
TSUCHIYA Eiko (Hiroshima University, Graduate School of Advanced Sciences of Matter)
NAKAMURA Taro (Osaka City University, Graduate School of Science)
TOHDA Hideki (Asahi Glass Co., Ltd., ASPEX Division, Research Center)
NISHIZAWA Masafumi (Keio University, School of Medicine)
HARASHIMA Satoshi (Osaka University, Graduate School of Engineering)
HIRAOKA Yasushi (Osaka University, Graduate School of Science)
MORIYA Hisao (Okayama University, Research Core for Interdisciplinary Sciences)
WATANABE Daisuke (National Research Institute of Brewing, Fundamental Research Division)
WATANABE Yoshinori (The University of Tokyo, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences)

Miyakawa, Tokichi (Hiroshima University)
Oshima, Yasuji (Osaka University)
Toh-e, Akio (University of Tokyo)
Yamamoto, Masayuki (University of Tokyo) Yanagida, Mitsuhiro (Kyoto University)

The two most useful yeast species, Schizosaccharomyces pombe (fission yeast) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (budding yeast), are managed by research groups at Osaka City University and Osaka University, respectively. These two groups collaborate closely in order to fulfill the goals of the project.

An overview of the YGRC is illustrated as follows:


If you wish to deposit strains or plasmids, please contact the YGRC by E-mail.
Fission yeast ()
Budding yeast ()
Initially, a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) will be signed and exchanged, in which you will indicate your preferred terms for future distribution of provided materials. You will then be asked to send the materials and to provide as much background information as possible (i.e., restriction maps, details about mutant isolation or construction, etc.) in order to make the materials a useful resource for future users. In the case of large contributions, the YGRC will send technical personnel to your laboratory to facilitate the transfer of materials.

Strains are stored in glycerol at -80^oC. When new strains are deposited, phenotypes of most are confirmed. Strains harboring new combinations of mutant alleles are also constructed at the YGRC.

Information about most strains and plasmids stored at the YGRC is available online and is searchable based on genotype or other relevant parameters.

If you wish to obtain yeast strains, plasmids or libraries, please contact us by E-mail. After receiving the materials you will be asked to complete, sign, and return to us an appropriate MTA. Depending on the materials, you may need to provide us with an agreement signed in advance by the Intellectual Property Right (IPR) holder.