The Schizosaccharomyces pombe genome sequencing project (http://www. sanger.ac.uk/Projects/S_pombe/) is nearly complete, and this is likely to generate interest in fission yeast as a model system beyond its traditional strongholds in the study of the cell cycle and sexual differentiation. In many fields S. pombe will offer a useful complement to the more widely studied Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but in some areas the impact of S. pombe may well rival or exceed that of this budding yeast in terms of relevance to higher systems. Because of the considerable differences from the S. cerevisiae microtubule cytoskeleton, studying microtubules in S. pombe is likely to enhance the contribution of model systems to our understanding of the principles and practices of microtubule organisation in eukaryotes in general.