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The fungal cell wall as a target for antifungal therapies Partner 7
Department of Cell
Biology and Plant Physiology,
Principal
scientist
Other
scientific and technical personnel
involved Lehrstuhl für
Zellbiologie und Pflanzenphysiologie
Experience of the participating organisation and scientists Participating organisation One of the main goals of Dr Strahl´s laboratory at the Department of Cell Biology and Plant Physiology at the University of Regensburg during the last 7 years has been to elucidate the mechanisms that are involved in the assembly and/or maintenance of a rigid, yet dynamic cell wall of fungi. Using the model organisms Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Candida albicans the laboratory work is mainly focusing on the impact of protein O-mannosylation and cell wall mannoproteins on the biogenesis and structure of the cell wall. The discoveries of our laboratory have made a major contribution to the present understanding of protein O-mannosylation. For example, we identified a new family of protein O-mannosyltransferases that initiate O-mannosylation (Girrbach et al., 2000, 2003), and demonstrated that this protein modification is essential for viability and cell wall integrity of fungi (Lommel et al., 2003). In collaboration with the group of Prof. W. Tanner (Univ. Regensburg), we purified and characterized several novel cell wall mannoproteins, which are functionally or structurally important for cell wall organization. In addition, we identified a novel compensatory mechanism (PICWS=PKC1-independent cell wall stabilization), that is important for cell wall integrity (Hagen et al., 2003). Our group has specific expertise in glycobiology, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, analyses of signal transduction pathways, ChIP analyses, and transcriptome analyses of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The laboratory is fully equipped for modern molecular and cell biology, biochemistry and microscopy. The University accommodates a number of well-equipped central facilities, including those required for genomic analyses (transcriptomics, protein structure analysis), FACS analyses, CLSM and electron microscopy. The group has participated in the EUROCELLWALL (N°QLK3-CT-2000-01537) project. Participating scientists Dr S. Strahl is head of the glycobiology group at the Department of Cell Biology and Plant Physiology at the University of Regensburg. She has a long-standing experience in the field of protein O-mannosylation of fungi over the last 10 years, and has made substantial contributions to the field.She has been instrumental in the development of ChIP analyses of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Hecht et al., 1999, Methods Mol. Biol.119). Her fields of expertise are: glycobiology, enzymology, biochemistry of membrane and cell wall proteins, signal transduction, ChIP analyses and molecular and cell biology of the model organisms Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Candida albicans. J. Spandl is PhD student in the Strahl´s lab. Her fields of expertise are yeast genetics, molecular and cell biology and two-hybrid systems. Roland Donhauser is technician in the Strahl´s lab since 2 years. His expertise is protein expression/purification, and molecular biology of S. cerevisiae. Dr I. Hagen is head of the Low Density Array Hybridisation Group of the Competence Center of Fluorescent Bioanalysis at the University of Regensburg. He has spent 6 years in the Strahl lab, where he has participated in the functional analyses of cell wall mannoproteins of S. cerevisiae and C. albicans. He is familiar with all the techniques outlined above; his particular expertise is in the area of transcriptomics. Relevant publications Lommel, M., Bagnat, M., Strahl, S. (2004). Aberrant processing of the WSC family and Mid2p cell surface sensors results in cell death of Saccharomyces cerevisiae O-mannosylation mutants. Mol Cell Biol. 24:46-57. Ecker, M., Mrsa, V., Hagen, I., Deutzmann, R., Strahl, S., Tanner, W. (2003). O-Mannosylation precedes and potentially controls the N-glycosylation of a yeast cell wall glycoprotein. EMBO Rep. 4:628-632. Girrbach, V., Strahl, S. (2003). Members of the evolutionarily conserved PMT family of protein O-mannosyltransferases form distinct protein complexes among themselves. J. Biol. Chem. 278:12554-12562. Girrbach, V., Zeller, T., Priesmeier, M., Strahl-Bolsinger, S. (2000). Structure-Function Analysis of the Dol-P-Man: Protein O-Mannosyltransferase ScPmt1p. J. Biol. Chem. 275:19288-19296. Strahl-Bolsinger, S., Hecht, A., Luo, K. ,Grunstein, M. (1997). SIR2 and SIR4 interactions differ in core and extended telomeric heterochromatin in yeast. Genes Devel. 11:83-93.
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