The cereal pathogen Fusarium graminearum produces secondary metabolites toxic to humans and animals, yet coordinated transcriptional regulation of gene clusters remains largely a mystery. By chromatin immunoprecipitation and high-throughput DNA sequencing (ChIP-seq) we found that regions with secondary metabolite clusters are enriched for trimethylated histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3), a...
Transcription factor (TF) genes were modified endogenously to include epitope tags for identification of TF protein binding sites by Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP), followed by high throughput sequencing. We used RNA-sequencing in carbon sources of sucrose, butyrate, and oleate in far-1, far-2, and a double far-1; far-2 mutant to find transcripts...
Fungi are a large group of eukaryotes found in nearly all ecosystems. More than 250 fungal genomes have already been sequenced, greatly improving our understanding of fungal evolution, physiology, and development. However, for the Pezizomycetes, an early-diverging lineage of filamentous ascomycetes, there is so far only one genome available, namely...
The microtubule (MT) "plus end" constitutes the platform for the accumulation of a structurally and functionally diverse group of proteins, collectively called "MT plus-end tracking proteins" (+TIPs). +TIPs control MT dynamics and link MTs to diverse sub-cellular structures. Neurospora crassa MicroTubule Binding protein-3 (MTB-3) is the homolog of yeast EB1,...
Background: Cytosine DNA methylation (5mC) is an epigenetic modification that is important to genome stability and regulation of gene expression. Perturbations of 5mC have been implicated as a cause of phenotypic variation among plants regenerated through in vitro culture systems. However, the pattern of change in 5mC and its functional...
The fungus Fusarium fujikuroi causes "bakanae" disease of rice due to its ability to produce gibberellins (GAs), but it is also known for producing harmful mycotoxins. However, the genetic capacity for the whole arsenal of natural compounds and their role in the fungus' interaction with rice remained unknown. Here, we...
Since the preindustrial era, the average surface ocean pH has declined by 0.1 pH units and is predicted to decline by an additional 0.3 units by the year 2100. Although subtle, this decreasing pH has profound effects on the seawater saturation state of carbonate minerals and is thus predicted to...
The process of expressing a gene involves not just binding of proteins and enzymes to DNA to produce first RNA and eventually proteins, but rather association of these transcription factors with chromatin and structural proteins called histones. When histone H3 is trimethylated at lysine 27 to produce H3K27me3, gene silencing...
The putative methyltransferase LaeA is a global regulator that affects the expression of multiple secondary metabolite gene clusters in several fungi, and it can modify heterochromatin structure in Aspergillus nidulans. We have recently shown that the LaeA ortholog of Trichoderma reesei (LAE1), a fungus that is an industrial producer of...
Peptide phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PPMO) are synthetic DNA mimics that bind complementary RNA and inhibit bacterial gene expression. (RFF)₃RXB- AcpP PPMO (R, arginine; F, phenylalanine; X, 6-aminohexanoic acid; B, β-alanine) is complementary to 11 bases of the essential gene acpP (encodes acyl carrier protein). The MIC of (RFF)₃RXB-AcpP was 2.5...