Chromatin & Epigenetics

Working Group of Stefan Grässle

About

Histone acetylation is linked to transcriptional activation in eukaryotes and histone deacetylases (HDACs) are considered extraordinarily important for gene repression. Since some HDACs turned out to be essential for fungal pathogens or for the production of important fungal metabolites, we are analysing these enzymes as targets for novel antifungal agents or triggers of secondary metabolite (SM) production for the identification of novel bioactive molecules of fungi.

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- Epigenetic gene regulation in filamentous fungi
- Identification of complex partners and targets of HDACs in filamentous fungi
- HDAC inhibitors as antifungal substances
- Generation of mutant strains of filamentous fungi
- Phenotypical and transcriptional analyses of (mutated) fungal strains
- Expression and purification of recombinant proteins in fungi
- Generation of mutant strains of filamentous fungi
- ChIP Chromatin immunoprecipitation
- Activity assays of histone-modifying enzymes
→ Show all publications on PubMed

Projects

Impact of HDACs on the SM production of fungi - SM are small bioactive molecules that are critical for fungal species during their development and interaction with other organisms. We are analyzing the impact of specific HDACs on the regulation of important SMs such as toxins and antibiotics.

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HDACs as antifungal targets - RpdA is an essential HDAC of pathogenic species such as Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus terreus. We are analyzing (novel) RpdA-inhibitors with regard to their antifungal activity.

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People

Group Leader

Ao. Univ. Prof. Mag. Stefan Grässle

Medical University of Innsbruck - Division of Molecular Biology
stefan.graessle@i-med.ac.at
+43 512 9003 70201

Group Members

Ingo Bauer, PhD

Postdoc; Impact of complex partners of histone deacetylases and role of arginine methyltransferases in filamentous fungi; ingo.bauer@i-med.ac.at