budding vs. fission

[M. Mitchell Smith]

Why is there budding? I'm reminded of the old Bill Cosby comedy routine:

	Question: "Why is there air?"
	Answer: "Everybody knows that!  There's air so you
		 can blow up basketballs!" :-)

The physiology of S. cerevisiae budding is quite complex, what with polar
and medial budding dependent on cell type.  With haploid and diploid
cycles and mating type switching going on ``on the grape'', budding
might be a very advantageous morphology -- as Fatima suggested: "It's
smart!"  An interesting discussion somewhat related to this issue
can be found in the Gimeno and Fink article "The logic of cell division
in the life cycle of yeast", Science 257:626 (1992).
							-- Mitch
-- 
M. Mitchell Smith			mms7r at Virginia.EDU
Department of Microbiology		(804) 924-2669
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22908