Exploiting microbial metabolites to understand fungal biology

该项目旨在通过研究抑制菌丝的细菌衍生化合物的作用机制，研究真菌中菌丝生长的原理。改变酵母和菌丝之间的细胞形状是一种原型发育开关，使真菌能够逃离压力环境，而菌丝入侵促进了动植物的真菌感染，危及粮食安全和生物多样性。通过使用微生物学和化学的跨学科方法，预期的成果是产生对重要微生物过程的深入了解以及如何对其进行调节，培养新的细菌化合物，并在生物学和化学的联系方面建立研究能力，以使学术界和工业界的发现受益。

The project aims to investigate the principles of hyphal growth in fungi, by studying the mechanisms of action of a bacteria-derived compound that inhibits hyphae. Changing cell shape between yeast and hyphae is a prototype developmental switch enabling fungi to escape stressful environments, while hyphal invasion promotes fungal infections of animals and plants that endanger food security and biodiversity. By using interdisciplinary approaches of microbiology and chemistry, the expected outcomes are to generate deep knowledge of an important microbial process and how it could be modulated, characterise a new bacterial compound and build research capacity at the nexus of biology and chemistry to benefit discoveries in academia and industry.