What is the growing mechanism of filamentous fungi, such as N. crassa?

Project by Thomas Lew

Mentor: Dr. Michael Freitag

Why this important?

Advances knowledge of fungal biology

Could lead to a way to stop growth of infectious fungi (i.e. selective targeting)

Examples of Infectious Fungal Diseases

Aspergillosis

Fungal pneumonia

http://www4.umdnj.edu/cswaweb/rad_teach/allasper.html

Why N. Crassa?

One of the oldest genetic model

Filamentous

Easier to manipulate

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What we think happens:

Microtubule Organization Center (at nuclei)

Apical Growth Body

Methods

• PCR – subcloning and N. crassa transformation

Replace Mal3 MT end binding protein with GFP-tagged Mal3 MT

Replace Tip1 MT binding protein with GFP-tagged Tip1 MT

• Microscopy

Track growth and direction

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

GFP

http://www.nih.gov/science/models/neurospora/image.html

Results

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Acknowledgements

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Dr. Kevin Ahern

Dr. Michael Freitag

Dr. Michael Gross

Grant Farr

All the wonderful people at OSU that helped us out