Biophysical characterizations of cellular growth and development in fungal cells using knockout mutants

我们探索导致细胞生长的驱动力。我们使用的细胞是有壁的细胞，通常处于压力下。这种压力会导致细胞在生长过程中膨胀。大多数活着的生物体都有壁细胞：植物(包括我们吃的农作物)、真菌(既是有益的，也是致病的)和藻类(藻类是许多其他生物体的食物，也是大气二氧化碳的主要生命控制器)。我们使用微技术探头来测量单个电池的压力和其他特性(主要是它们的电特性)。我们已经发现，营养物质进入细胞内的运输对于控制内部压力和允许细胞持续生长至关重要。当生物体受到水分胁迫，也就是所谓的干旱时，这些机制就显得格外重要。因此，我们的研究提供了新的方面的知识，可以用来改造耐干旱条件的植物(和真菌)。将这些基本知识转化为实际成果绝非易事。我们建议使用在模式生物神经孢子虫(通常称为面包霉菌)中创建的大量突变库来探索单个基因在压力驱动生长期间营养吸收中的作用。随着我们了解这些单个基因的作用，应用科学家可能会将这些知识转化为生物技术进步。

We explore the driving forces that cause cells to grow. The cells we use are walled cells that are typically under pressure. The pressure causes the cells to expand during growth. Most living organisms have walled cells: Plants (including the crops that we eat), fungi (both beneficial and agents of disease), and algae (algae serve as food for many other organisms and are the major living controller of atmospheric carbon dioxide). We use micro-technological probes to measure the pressure and other properties of single cells (mostly their electrical properties). We have discovered that transport of nutrients into the cell is crucial to control the internal pressure and allow continuing growth of the cell. These mechanisms are extraordinarily important when the organism is subjected to water stress, otherwise known as drought. So, the novel aspects of our research provide knowledge that can be used to engineer plants (and fungi) that are tolerant to drought conditions. Translating this basic knowledge into practical outcomes is by no means easy. We propose to explore the roles of individual genes in nutrient uptake during pressure-driven growth using a large library of mutants created in a model organism Neurospora (commonly called bread mold). As we learn the roles of these individual genes, that knowledge may be translatable into biotechnological advances by applied scientists.