PhD Studentships

Cell fusion in the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa

Prof. Nick Read

Cell fusion is a key feature of filamentous fungi, and occurs at multiple stages during their life cycles. Most of our work is focused on the model filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa but we are also studying the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe grisea. Cell fusion is being analysed during the vegetative phase of colony establishment and development, and during sexual reproduction. Our work is presently focused on: (1) screening knockout mutants compromised in cell fusion, and particularly the signalling mechanisms involved, (2) live-cell imaging of proteins involved in cell fusion, and (3) characterization and endocytic recycling of external signal molecules. PhD projects are available in one or more of these areas of research.

For more information see www.biology.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate/

  1. Galagan, J.E, Calvo, S.E., Borkovich, K.A., Selker, E.U., Read, N.D. et al. (2003). The genome sequence of the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa. Nature 422: 859-868. Link
  2. Read, N.D. & Roca, M.G. (2006). Vegetative hyphal fusion in filamentous fungi. In Cell-cell channels (eds. Baluska, F., Volkmann, D. & Barlow, P.W., pp. 87-98. Landes Bioscience. Link
  3. Roca, M.G., Arlt, J., Jeffree, C.E. & Read , N.D. (2005). Cell biology of conidial anastomosis tubes. Eukaryotic Cell 4: 911-919. Link

 

 

 

© 2007 Fungalcell.org