Project Details
Projekt
Novel molecular mechanisms of iron sensing and homeostasis in filamentous fungi
Subject Area
Parasitology and Biology of Tropical Infectious Disease Pathogens
Term
from 2014 to 2018
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 241377596
Iron is essential for numerous cellular processes but toxic in excess. Moreover, adaptation to iron starvation is a crucial virulence determinant of pathogens including fungi. Due to the fundamental differences in the mechanism employed by host and pathogens to maintain iron homeostasis, iron metabolism is an attractive new target for improvement of antifungal therapy and diagnosis of fungal infections. However, a better understanding of the molecular basis of fungal iron homeostasis is required.In various fungi including the most common airborne fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus, the key iron regulator HapX has been shown to be required for adaptation to iron starvation via its interaction with the CCAAT-binding complex (CBC). Recently, we found that HapX is in addition essential for iron resistance, which underlines that HapX senses the cellular iron status to coordinate the transcriptional response.The planned collaborative studies by geneticists, biochemists and structural biologists aim to explore in molecular depth the functions of the HapX/CBC complex as iron sensor, transcriptional repressor and activator, as well as promoter organizer. In vivo and in vitro analyses are combined with structural examinations of the involved protein/protein and protein/DNA complexes to elucidate these novel regulatory mechanisms in eukaryotes.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
International Connection
Austria
Partner Organisation
Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF)
Participating Person
Professor Dr. Hubertus Haas
