EASTBIO Understanding hyphal growth of filamentous fungi through omics approaches.

Many filamentous fungi are important pathogens of plant crops, animals, and humans, affecting food security and economy, and animal and human health. A key feature/strategy of filamentous fungi is the rapid growth of fungal hyphae, as this allows efficient exploration of local resources and environment. Hyphal growth depends on a structure near the hyphal cell tip known as the Spitzenkörper (SPK; German for "tip body"). The SPK includes secretory vesicles, ribosomes, and other uncharacterised cellular components. Although the importance of the SPK for hyphal growth has been recognised for decades, how the SPK itself is organised remains a mystery. This PhD project is aimed at understanding the biogenesis (composition, organisation, and dynamics) of the SPK, as well as its function in hyphal growth. The project will involve a combination of biochemistry, live-cell microscopy, and omics approaches (primarily proteomics), in order to define SPK protein composition and protein-protein interactions in the model filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans. Genetics and microscopy approaches will further be used to determine the function of different SPK components. A deeper understanding of SPK organisation and function may ultimately lead to improvements in crop production and human/animal health.

 The project combines the microscopy, genetics and biochemistry/mass spectrometry expertise of the Sawin group with the omics and big-data expertise of the Wallace group. Methods involved in the project will include: gene tagging and gene deletion/mutation; proximity labeling methods; live-cell fluorescence microscopy; protein purification; mass spectrometry/proteomics, evolutionary analysis; and statistical analysis of omics data.

 https://www.wcb.ed.ac.uk/research/sawin

https://ewallace.github.io/

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