Postdoctoral Researchers
Charles Hall
Tools for mapping QTLs in Neurospora crassa
charleshall [at] berkeley [dot] edu
Abigail Leeder
The regulation of germling and hyphal fusion
Currently studying cell-cell communication during germling and hyphal fusion. I am interested in how pairs of cells signal to re-orient their growth towards one another, and how these signals change to allow post-contact fusion events.
aleeder [at] berkeley [dot] edu
Terry Shock
I am studying how plant cell wall degradation is orchestrated by fungi, with the ultimate goal of significantly improving plant biomass degradation efficiency.
terryshock [at] berkeley [dot] edu
Trevor Lee Starr
I am interested in learning how N. crassa remodels its transcriptional and secretory machinery to achieve plant cell wall degradation. I am particularly interested in determining how the secretory pathway is modified to allow high-level secretion of cellulases. This includes using transcriptional profiling to determine which components of the secretory pathway are up-regulated during growth on cellulose, and using cell biology to determine how secretory compartments accommodate the demand for increased secretion capacity. I am also using genetics to find hyper-secreting mutants of N. crassa. Our end-goal is to use the information gained from this and other studies in the lab to aid in the rational engineering of N. crassa and other filamentous fungi for enhanced secretion capacity.
Jianping Sun
Protein interactions during cell fusion and non-self recognition
Miscanthus cell wall degradation by Neurospora crassa
jpsun [at] nature [dot] berkeley [dot] edu
Chaoguang Tian
Miscanthus cell wall degradation by Neurospora crassa
I am studying N. crassa as a model organism for plant cell wall degradation. I study how fungi secrete enzymes to degrade plant cell walls, in order to improve either plant biomass degradation efficiency or plant biomass processing enzyme production.
cgtian [at] nature [dot] berkeley [dot] edu
Graduate Students
Elizabeth Hutchison
Genetic and molecular mechanisms of non-self recognition
I am studying how Neurospora crassa recognizes self from non-self, and in the cell death reaction that occurs following non-self recognition. In particular, I am looking for additional suppressors of heterokaryon incompatibility using a genetic screen. I am also characterizing additional HET domain genes involved in incompatibility. Finally, I am studying the role of vib-1 (an HI suppressor) and its paralogs during HI and during the sexual cycle.
hutchison [at] berkeley [dot] edu
Anna Simonin
Hyphal fusion and colony nutrient transport
I am interested in how hyphal fusion events affect resource distribution within and between fungal colonies. Also, many genes have been identified in the hyphal fusion pathway yet we don’t fully understand their function. I plan to characterize the roles of HAM-3 and HAM-4 in hyphal fusion.
annasimonin [at] berkeley [dot] edu
Research Staff
David Kowbel
Juliet Welch
Tools for mapping QTLs