July 1, 2009 (Vol. 29, No. 13)

URL:
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~forsburg/index.html

Rating:
Strong Points: Good links, interesting information
Weak Points: Nothing significant

Summary:
This site would attract more visitors—or at least a different audience—if its title was translated from its Swahili roots. In that case it would read as “BeerNet.” In actuality, this site is about the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, which was originally isolated from millet beer in Africa. The PombeNet, hosted by the Forsburg Lab at the University of Southern California, offers a great “Pombe FAQ” page that includes general information about the yeast, protocols, links for sequence analysis, and a list of other pombe websites. There are also lists of pombe conferences and researchers who work with pombe. However, one has to appreciate the inclusion of answers to the really important questions: Can you make beer with S. pombe? What about bread? (Answers: There were disappointing results for the beer endeavor, and the bread was good, but it didn’t rise as well as when made with traditional yeast.)

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