Résumé
The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae represents a powerful tool to study DNA replication and the cell cycle regulatory pathways controlling entry into, and progression through S phase. In fact, the availability of the complete sequence of the S. cerevisiae genome, the identification of several DNA replication genes, together with the possibility of combining molecular genetic tools with classical techniques of genetics, biochemistry, and cell biology, make this system particularly useful to improve our knowledge of the DNA replication process at the molecular level. Moreover, by considering that the structure and function of most of the replication proteins and the regulatory circuits connecting DNA replication to other cell cycle events have been highly conserved during evolution, the information obtained using the S. cerevisiae or the S. pombe systems can be generally extended to other eukaryotic cells.