The third BamHI fragment, containing most of gene for apocytochrome b, has been cloned and sequenced in the Schizosaccharomyces pombe strain EF1 (CBS 356). In contrast to strain ade 7-50h- (50) from the Leupold collection, in which the gene is interrupted by an intron of group II (Lang et al. 1984), the homologous gene in strain EF1 is continuous. This demonstrates that the intron in the gene for apocytochrome b is optional. Aligning the EF1 sequence with the homologous regions in strain 50, 2 base pair changes were found in the leader and 14 in the coding region. These changes led to 12 altered triplets, but 9 of them specify the same amino acid. Seven base changes were clustered within a stretch of 30 base pairs in the region in which the intron is inserted in strain 50. Five out of the resulting six triplet changes were also silent. These sequence variations around the highly conserved splice point region may be linked to the insertion or excision of the intron.