Facile manipulation and rapid regeneration have helped to establish the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a genetic workhorse. More recently, these simple eukaryotes have been used for the biochemical analysis of mammalian proteins. This article describes the use of a yeast expression system for both in vitro and in vivo assays of mammalian phosphodiesterase (PDE) activity using yeast cells devoid of endogenous PDEs. It also presents simple methodologies for the analysis of the pharmacological properties of mammalian PDEs and describes the use of a powerful genetic selection for mutant forms of PDEs with altered biochemical and pharmacological characteristics.