My apologies for getting to this very late.
Kayla will present today the following:
Gene Expression of the Quinic Acid (qa) Gene Cluster in Neurospora crassa
Her references can be found at the following links:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19236936
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC373038/pdf/microrev00058-0168.pdf
As for Dr. Asch, he is performing fungal finger puppets. Not really - he has not given me any specific information just yet. If I get it in time, I will pass it along.
Dr Asch gave very informative presentation last friday. His area of research is how fungal gene expression reacts to stress. He talked about gene regulation which is kind of a mechanism which controls the level of gene expression. It is important for the organis, so proteins can be produced at certain time and in certain amount; hence not all of the genes are regulated. Model organism that Dr Asch is working with is Neurospora crassa.This is fairly easy model organism to work with. One of the abilities of fungi is that they can grow and adapt in environments where preferred carbon sources are not available. They require special pathways, however the products are not always needed. And example that Dr Asch used is quinate/ shikimate pathway of N. crassa, which is basically main focus of his research and his graduate student Kayla. It was shown that exoposure to quanic acid cause changes in gene expression of N. crassa. The main idea was to analyze N. crassa gene expression in response to the presence of quanic acid.
ReplyDeleteMy question is how do you think findings of this research will be beneficial for us? How can we potentially use this information?
sorry for late response. and happy holidays!!!
Marta B.
N. crassa is one of the most important model research organisms in modern biology. Indeed N. crass has a lot economic importance that necessitates concerted efforts of its study, not only to exploit it capacity as a viable research organism, but also how it can efficiently be cultivated in the lab to insure its steady supply.
ReplyDeleteIt has fast growth rate, ease of culture and simple nutritional requirements and furthermore, non pathogenic. Neurospora crassa is a great model not only for circadian biology, but for several other important biological processes, for which fascinating discoveries are being made regularly.
Neurospora remains a wellspring of knowledge in areas including meiotic recombination, mitochondrial biology, developmental biology and also chromosome dynamics. As different from E. coli, N.crassa closely mimics eukaryote biology and this has made it a preferred choice in many study and has indeed become the sole model eukaryote. It is genetically tractable, easy culture and developmentally more complex, which allows it to perform studies and obtain information that cannot be obtained from yeast.
Indeed, complex biological processes, like development and differentiation, post-transcriptional gene silencing, photobiology and emergent properties like circadian rhythms has allowed Neurospora to complement the knowledge derived from yeast, highlighting the use of fungi in the advancement of molecular biology.
Dr. Asch's work with N. crassa allows us to better understand the organism's gene regulation. Since N. crassa is a eukaryotic organism, it could also provide some insight into other genetic mechanisms that are highly conserved throughout the domain. A full understanding of eukaryotic regulation is necessary before researchers can begin manipulating it. This has application in modern medicine where some diseases caused by genetic defect can be repaired or replaced in order to restore the lost function. Medicine could also alter or inactivate genes to prevent infection or adverse health effects of some pathogens. For example, HIV needs to bind to co-receptors on T-helper cells in order to infiltrate the cell. Removing or altering of these co-receptors can stop viral infiltration and prevent the onset of AIDs. Either way, understanding how genes interact with each other to produce proteins is vital to this research.
ReplyDeleteBesides the satisfaction of new knowledge, this research is important in learning novel ways of controlling gene expression. There is knowledge that gene expression in eukaryotes is not only controlled by just heredity, but by chromosome structure (histones), during and after transcription, as well as during and after translation. The idea that gene expression can be controlled by extrinsic factors delves into the epigenetics field and could be a means of treating certain diseases and conditions that are not well understood.
ReplyDeleteN. crassa plays an important role in the field of genetics and understanding of relationships between genes and proteins. Studying this organism can also provide the opportunity to study different modes of evolution. Fungal biology promises to yield insight into this important group of organisms, as well as to provide a deeper understanding of the fundamental cellular processes common to all eukaryotes (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v422/n6934/full/nature01554.html).
ReplyDelete