Transporter repertoire evolution in the Fungi: adaptation to vertebrate- derived niches
Ente: WT
Scadenza: 2031-07-01
Importo max: 2.239.860 EUR
Paese: EU
Descrizione
The Fungi are a highly diverse kingdom unified by one evolutionary trend; osmotrophy. Osmotrophy involves the external digestion of target compounds and the subsequent uptake of liberated metabolites into the cell. As such, how fungi adapt to their environment is determined by the repertoire of metabolite transporter proteins localised to the surface membrane. These features determine which environments a fungus can colonise and how they compete with others. Previous work has suggested that adaptation to pathogenic life-styles is underpinned by changes in transporter protein repertoire. The aim of this project is to identify how transporter repertoire has changed across the fungal tree of life, identify changes that correlate with the rise of pathogenic clades - particularly vertebrate pathogenic clades - and then use heterologous protein expression in model systems to characterise the substrate transportation function of the transporters identified. This work will enable us to understand how fungal transporter protein evolution relates to adaptation to vertebrate pathogenic niche on a kingdom-level scale and will allow us to identify how changes in metabolite-uptake underpin pathogen emergence. These data will provide the basic science for targeting metabolic adaptations unique to vertebrate pathogens as therapeutic targets and identify trends that will underpin future pathogen emergence.
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