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Team:Wageningen UR/Cytoskeleton and septa
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Revision as of 14:12, 26 September 2013
- Safety introduction
- General safety
- Fungi-related safety
- Biosafety Regulation
- Safety Improvement Suggestions
- Safety of the Application
- Why Aspergillus nigem?
- Secondary metabolites
- Lovastatin
- ATP Biosensor
- pH Biosensor
- Cytoskeleton and Septa
- Chromoproteins
- Host engineering
- Applications
Cytoskeleton and septa
First steps towards visualization of trafficking
Introduction
The visualization of the actin cytoskeleton and the septa of A. niger is used as a first step towards visualization of trafficking in A. niger. This is of great interest because of the function of A. niger in production of secondary metabolites and organic acids. A. niger is a great secretor and visualizing this mechanisms can help to understand the mechanisms underlying the process of production and secretion. The actin cytoskeleton is known to be needed for the maintenance of the shape of the cells, to adhere to substances and to help during growth and secretion. It exists of actin cables which are long, thin, parallel fibers and cortical actin patches which are highly polarized. The actin patches are also known to be present in growing tips and help in a structure called Spitzenkörper with growth and secretion. Vesicles are delivered towards the growing tips and its lipids are used for growth. The vesicles are moved towards the Spitzenkörper with the help of microtubules and the actin filaments take them over.
The septum is a membrane that separates two neighbouring cell in a filamentous fungus such as A. niger. It is a contractile ring that can be open or closed and it allows nutrients and organelles to pass through as needed. The septal band consists of actins, septins and formins. For septation, actins are needed as they form a ring structure that is a first step in septation. Also they are needed for contraction of the ring and are associated with microtubules to do so! The septins are a conserved family of proteins and they also form a ring like structure covering the already mentioned actin ring. Furthermore they appear to be of importance for mitosis and the mitotic spindle and the mitotic signals seem to be important for the assembly of a septal band. The third component of the septa appears to be formins which are needed for the actin ring to assemble after mitosis. All in all it appears that all three components work together really closely and septation is not working properly if one of them is not functioning properly.
Aim
The aim is to visualize the actin cytoskeleton and the septa by labeling it with a fluorescent protein such as GFP.
