Project description:Fungal necromass in soil represents the stable carbon pools. While fungi are known to decompose fungal necromass, how fungi decomopose melanin, remains poorly understood. Recently, Trichoderma species was found to be one of the most commonly associated fungi in soil, we have used a relevant fungal species, Trichoderma reesei, to characterized Genes involved in the decomposition of melanized and non-melanized necromass from Hyaloscypha bicolor.
Project description:The ability to grow at host temperature is a critical trait for most pathogenic microbes of humans. Thermally dimorphic fungal pathogens, including Histoplasma capsulatum, are a class of soil fungi that undergo a dramatic change in cell shape and virulence gene expression in response to host temperature. Here we elucidate a complex temperature-responsive network in H. capsulatum, which switches from an environmental filamentous form to a pathogenic yeast form. We dissect the circuit driven by three regulators that control yeast-phase growth, and demonstrate that these factors, including two deeply conserved Velvet family proteins of unknown function, associate with DNA. We identify and characterize a fourth regulator of this pathway, and define cis-acting motifs that recruit these transcription factors to a tightly interwoven network of temperature-responsive target genes. Our results provide the first comprehensive analysis of the complex transcriptional network that links temperature to morphology and virulence in thermally dimorphic fungi. This submission gives the chromatin immunoprecipitation results.
Project description:The genus Collimonas consists of soil bacteria that are well known for their antifungal activity and for mycophagy, i.e. the ability to grow at the expense of living fungi. The aim of the current study was to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of antagonism of Collimonas bacteria towards fungi, the involvement of the mycophagous phenotype, and the role of the fungus as a responsive partner in the interaction. In order to reach this aim, the bacterium Collimonas fungivorans and the fungus Aspergillus niger were confronted in vitro. Bacterial and fungal RNA were isolated at two time points during the interaction and analyzed by microarray analysis. Objective: Investigate the expression profile of a bacterium when it was challenged by the presence of an antagonist fungus (control was the expression profile of the bacterium when it was alone). In parallel investigate the expression profile of the antagonist fungus when it was challenged by the presence of the bacterium (control was the expression profile of the fungus when it was alone).(Additional file available in additional.zip)
Project description:Isolation of fungi in infected neural tissues in patients with Parkinson's disease. Here we used next generation sequencing of Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) regions, by PCR amplicons (NGS ITS amplicon analysis).
Project description:Identifying the genetic basis for natural selection is a fundamental research goal, and particularly significant for soil fungi because of their central role in ecosystem functioning. Here, we identify rapid evolutionary processes in the plant root colonizing insect pathogen Metarhizium robertsii. While adapting to a new soil community, expression of TATA box containing cell wall and stress response genes evolved at an accelerated rate, whereas virulence determinants, transposons and chromosome structure were unaltered. The survival of diversified field isolates was increased, confirming that the mutations were adaptive, and we further show that large populations of Metarhizium are principally maintained by associations with plant roots rather than insect populations. These results provide a mechanistic basis for understanding mutational and selective effects on soil microbes.
Project description:The ability to grow at host temperature is a critical trait for most pathogenic microbes of humans. Thermally dimorphic fungal pathogens, including Histoplasma capsulatum, are a class of soil fungi that undergo a dramatic change in cell shape and virulence gene expression in response to host temperature. Here we elucidate a complex temperature-responsive network in H. capsulatum, which switches from an environmental filamentous form to a pathogenic yeast form. We dissect the circuit driven by three regulators that control yeast-phase growth, and demonstrate that these factors, including two deeply conserved Velvet family proteins of unknown function, associate with DNA. We identify and characterize a fourth regulator of this pathway, and define cis-acting motifs that recruit these transcription factors to a tightly interwoven network of temperature-responsive target genes. Our results provide the first comprehensive analysis of the complex transcriptional network that links temperature to morphology and virulence in thermally dimorphic fungi. This submission gives the expression profiling results.
Project description:The ability to grow at host temperature is a critical trait for most pathogenic microbes of humans. Thermally dimorphic fungal pathogens, including Histoplasma capsulatum, are a class of soil fungi that undergo a dramatic change in cell shape and virulence gene expression in response to host temperature. Here we elucidate a complex temperature-responsive network in H. capsulatum, which switches from an environmental filamentous form to a pathogenic yeast form. We dissect the circuit driven by three regulators that control yeast-phase growth, and demonstrate that these factors, including two deeply conserved Velvet family proteins of unknown function, associate with DNA. We identify and characterize a fourth regulator of this pathway, and define cis-acting motifs that recruit these transcription factors to a tightly interwoven network of temperature-responsive target genes. Our results provide the first comprehensive analysis of the complex transcriptional network that links temperature to morphology and virulence in thermally dimorphic fungi. This submission gives the expression profiling results.