THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2021 7 -9 PM CST
Grace is getting her PhD with the Krasileva lab at UC Berkeley, which studies the evolution of immune systems throughout the tree of life. Her current thesis research focuses on bacterial-fungal interactions (BFI) in which she hopes to elucidate the basic cell and molecular mechanisms of the Fungal Immune system. This talk will go over her path in academia, the basics of cell and molecular biology, fungal cell biology, Immune systems and Grace’s independent research on the fungal immune system!
Meeting ID: 876 2114 5502
Passcode: 649729
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Grace Stark is currently a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley in Microbiology. She grew up in Austin Texas and went to UT Austin for her BSc in Biochemistry where she participated in undergraduate research. Her research interests have always aligned with how organisms interact with their microbiome/environment. She first started in the Hawkes lab studying fungal endophyte ecology in Texas native grasses. She then worked within the Barrick lab studying Plant/pathogen interactions and genetic engineering for agriculture sustainability. Between undergraduate and graduate school she became extremely interested in fungi through foraging and naturalizing. Her first study coming from graduate school focused on pyrophilus fungi that grow in abundance after wildfires in California. Her recent publication on post fire fungus metabolism can be found here.
A more detailed description of her thesis research is below:
Elucidating the Fungal immune system and testing the potential role of Nucleotide-binding domain Leucine-rich repeat-like proteins (NLR-like) against bacterial antagonists.
Abstract:
Filamentous fungi are hosts to pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, parasitic fungi, and grazing nematodes. Besides RNAi to protect fungal genomes from mycoviruses, a fungal inducible defense (immunity) upon recognition of bacteria has yet to be fully described. Genes encoding nucleotide-binding domain Leucine-rich repeat-like (NLR-like) proteins are present in abundance in the genomes of filamentous fungi. NLRs are intracellular receptors known to mediate cross-kingdom, antagonistic communication in plants and metazoans. Although a role for NLR-like proteins has been described for self/non-self recognition systems known as heterokaryon incompatibility (HI), evidence of cross-kingdom surveillance of fungal NLR-like proteins is lacking. In order to investigate if fungal NLR-like proteins participate in an inducible response like plant and animal NLRs, I utilize Neurospora crassa and various bacteria with a primary focus on the seventeen putative NLR-like proteins encoded in the N. crassa genome. I show that exposure of N. crassa to bacteria and bacterial secretions results in an environmental-dependent response, Including, but not limited to: growth defects, possible growth upregulation, macroconidial production, and cell death. This result suggests that N. crassa is initiating many transcriptional changes and possible programmed cell death upon recognition of bacteria that might be constituting a putative immune response. In order to investigate these responses, I plan on conducting RNAseq, reverse genetics of NLR-like genes, and Genome Wide Association (GWAS) studies of N.crassa environmental isolates. The discovery of genes underlying an immune-like response within the kingdom of fungi will not only lead to a better understanding of basic fungal biology but possibly novel cell death pathways to target destructive fungi or bacterial/fungal relationships.