🍄 New study on #fungal #isocyanide synthases (#ICSs)! With @grantnickles.bsky.social @kellerlab.bsky.social (Uni. Wisconsin-Madison) @currentbiology.bsky.social @unipd.bsky.social Thanks all for the great teamwork! doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.… #Lichens #SecondaryMetabolism #biosyntheticGenes #fungi

Anna Lehmann, PhD candidate working in the Heitman Lab, found Aspergillus fumigatus can briefly duplicate chromosomes to survive antifungal treatment, then revert without a trace. https://medschool.duke.edu/news/phd-candidate-discovers-hidden-way-fungal-pathogen-may-resist-treatment

PhD candidate discovers a hidden way that a fungal pathogen may resist treatment

Some fungal pathogens survive antifungal drugs by mutating.

medschool.duke.edu

Big surprise just out from our lab. Transcriptome from A. fumigatus conidiophore made at 50C is upregulated for MAT1-1. Why is this sexual master regulator up in asexual development? Maybe priming future progeny for survival? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Temperature during Aspergillus fumigatus conidiophore development primes spore transcriptome for asexual, parasexual or sexual development

Aspergillus fumigatus is a thermotolerant saprobe found in soils and plant debris worldwide and an important pathogen of humans causing two million deaths annually. A. fumigatus makes abundant asexual...

biorxiv.org

Our paper is finally out in PLOS Genetics! Glad to share this work exploring new functions of the Sxi1/Sxi2 homeodomain proteins in Cryptococcus deneoformans. dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Homeodomain protein Sxi1α independently controls cell-cell fusion and gene expression during sexual reproduction in Cryptococcus deneoformans

Author summary Analogous to processes observed in many eukaryotic organisms, fungal sexual reproduction reshuffles genetic material, producing novel genetic variants with increased fitness and/or adap...

dx.plos.org

Excited to share new work from Sarvesh Surve examining the gut microbiota of adults with CF using colonoscopy samples and a culturomics approach. We note continued depletion of Bacteroidota (which we noted in kids) & enrichment of aerobes in the mucosa of pwCF. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41256617/

Excited to share our new preprint in collaboration with @kellerlab.bsky.social! We identified unstable aneuploidy in Aspergillus fumigatus and explore how aneuploidy-mediated transcriptional and metabolic changes influence antifungal resistance. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Whole-chromosome duplications drive antimicrobial resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus

Aneuploidy causes genome plasticity and enables adaptive responses that confer drug resistance in eukaryotes ranging from fungal pathogens to human cancer cells. Aspergillus fumigatus is a soil-reside...

biorxiv.org

Extremely excited to present our latest preprint in which we mapped a thermoregulation network that governs virulence in a human fungal pathogen through genetic suppressors, TurboID proximity ligation assay, and functional regulation via domain-truncation alleles. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thrilled to share that the final chapter of my PhD with @rokaslab.bsky.social is now out in @natcomms.nature.com 🎉 Read it to find out how population structure impacts pathogenicity in Aspergillus flavus, a fungus that infects humans 🧪 rdcu.be/eAToj

Population structure in a fungal human pathogen is potentially linked to pathogenicity

Nature Communications - Genetic diversity between clinical and environmental fungal isolates of Aspergillus flavus is poorly studied. Here, the authors analysed genomic data from a global set of...

rdcu.be

🚨 Fungi + viruses + mammalian lungs? Buckle up! Our new paper in @natmicrobiol.nature.com uncovers the story of a deadly fungus and its gnarly viral hitchhiker — and how this duo may change how we diagnose & treat fungal disease 🍄🫁🚨 doi.org/10.1038/s415... ⬇️

Aspergillus fumigatus dsRNA virus promotes fungal fitness and pathogenicity in the mammalian host - Nature Microbiology

A mycovirus infecting the pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus enhances its stress tolerance and virulence in mice.

doi.org