Yeast becomes a cell biologist

JCB • VOLUME 171 • NUMBER 3 • 2005 408 Yeast becomes a cell biologist ummer research collaborations at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory have a magical way of unveiling cellular secrets. In 1982, when Alison Adams, her graduate advisor John Pringle, and John Kilmartin met up, little did they know that their attempts to visualize actin and tubulin would transform yeast from a genetics-only organism to a cell biology workhorse. For her graduate work, Adams wanted to study what actin was doing in yeast, specifically using immunofluorescence (IF) for localization. But her committee members (and many others in the field) were skeptical, because the impermeable yeast cell wall would block antibody penetration. Pringle says he distinctly remembers “having pessimistic conversations” about small, round yeast cells making bad candidates for IF compared with the large, flattened cells that were in vogue for the technique. The two went to Woods Hole to see if Bob and Anne Goldman’s antibodies to mammalian cytoskeletal proteins would recognize yeast proteins. By chance, Kilmartin was there with his new monoclonal antitubulin antibody, which he had already managed to get into spheroS