Four years of post-genomic life with 6,000 yeast genes.

Four years after disclosure of the full yeast genome sequence, a series of resources including tens of thousands of mutant strains, plasmids bearing isolated genes and disruption cassettes are becoming publicly available. Deletions of each of the 6,000 putative yeast genes are being screened systematically for dozens of phenotypic traits. In addition, new global approaches such as DNA hybridization arrays, quantitative proteomics and two-hybrid interactions are being steadily improved. They progressively build up an immense computation network of billions of data points which will, within the next decade, characterize all molecular interactions occurring in a simple eukaryotic cell. In this process of acquisition of new basic knowledge, an international community of over 1,000 laboratories cooperates with a remarkable willingness to share projects and results.