Abstract
The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used for bread making and beer brewing for thousands of years. In addition, its ease of manipulation, well-annotated genome, expansive molecular toolbox, and its strong conservation of basic eukaryotic biology also make it a prime model for eukaryotic cell biology and genetics. In this review, we discuss the characteristics that made yeast such an extensively used model organism and specifically focus on the DNA damage response pathway as a prime example of how research in S. cerevisiae helped elucidate a highly conserved biological process. In addition, we also highlight differences in the DNA damage response of S. cerevisiae and humans and discuss the challenges of using S. cerevisiae as a model system.