Perspective How to Choose the Right Mate

tion plays an important role in differenti-ation, antigenic variation, and evolution in many systems. Mating-type switching is an example of programmed recombination, and studies of both the budding yeast [1] and fission yeast [2] have provided a wealth of knowledge on how epigenetic and genetic machineries interact with each other to control this process. Fission yeast has evolved a potent mating-type switching process that rapidly establishes a mixed population, containing roughly the same proportion of P (for plus) and M (for minus) cells, thus allowing sexual reproduction of individuals in