Genetic and Molecular Signaling Associated with Cell-cell Fusion in Fungi

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Cell-cell fusion is an essential process in most multicellular organisms. In filamentous fungi, formation of cellular networks via fusion of cells is essential for movement of nutrients, which has an immediate applicability to industrial fungus control. In order to interact with one another and respond to environmental cues, these fungi communicate via chemical languages using extracellular signals and cellular responses. This project will study the molecular mechanisms of specific signaling proteins that localize to sites of interaction between cells in order to provide a model to understand signaling between genetically identical cells. The project offers an interdisciplinary training opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students, and post-doctoral associates (including members of underrepresented groups) who will conduct live cell microscopy, as well as genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology experiments. They will present their work at national and international conferences, and they will have opportunities to author publications on their research. In addition, biological images and movies developed as a result of the proposed research will be distributed to other Universities and mycological organizations nation-wide as teaching material at undergraduate level and for the public at large. The elucidation of chemical communication in fungi is important for understanding their role in nature and serves as a molecular paradigm for cell-cell communication. Understanding at molecular scale the homotypic fusion of filamentous fungi has the potential to uncover a new paradigm, that is, a novel mode of establishing specific communication and fusion between related cells. In Neurospora crassa, the attraction of cells to each other, and subsequent fusion, requires a precise regulation of protein localization and activation which is dependent upon reception of chemical signals. Analyses of wild specimens of N. crassa indicate that different chemical languages (i.e. dialects) determine whether or not fusion will occur between genetically different specimens. This project will study the molecular mechanisms of specific signaling proteins that localize to sites of interaction between cells in order to provide a model to understand signaling between genetically identical cells. Using genomic comparisons between wild specimens, the genetic basis of the chemical dialects will be determined.