Carbon- and nitrogen utilisation of pathogenic Candida and Aspergillus species during pathogenesis

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Matthias Brock
• Subject Area: Parasitology and Biology of Tropical Infectious Disease Pathogens
• Term: from 2008 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 77678255

Opportunistic human pathogenic fungi cause growing problems in immunocompromised patients. Little is known about the metabolic requirements of these fungi during pathogenesis although the understanding of carbon- and nitrogen metabolism could lead to the development of new antifungal drugs. Candida albicans requires a functional glyoxylate cycle for full virulence and lipid metabolism was assumed to be essential for pathogenesis. Since the glyoxylate cycle is dispensable for virulence of Aspergillus fumigatus, one aim of this project is to elucidate the metabolic differences between these two medically important fungi. Therefore, we want to study the nutrients utilised by these fungi under in vivo conditions and how they are made available. These studies will involve 2-D gel analyses and transcriptomics from in vitro growth conditions as well as single cell profiling within infected tissues to study the importance of specific metabolic pathways under infectious conditions. Furthermore, we will biochemically characterise enzymes, which turn out to be specifically upregulated during pathogenesis to identify new targets for antifungal therapy and diagnosis.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1160: Colonisation and Infection by Human-pathogenic Fungi