Chitin and Chitosan Metabolism

Working Group of Sabine Gruber

About

The research group chitin metabolism, fungal biology and biocontrol deals with cell wall metabolism in the filamentous fungi Trichoderma spp. during vegetative growth, stress and mycoparasitism. The main goal is to understand the impact of cell wall remodeling of the polysaccharide core of the fungal cell wall and its role for mycoparasitism of Trichoderma. A second goal is the industrial application of fungal cell wall components, mainly chitosan, and their role in biocontrol.

https://www.uibk.ac.at/microbiology/team/sabine_gruber/index.html.en

https://www.fh-campuswien.ac.at/lehre/hochschullehre/projekte/detail/chitosan-ii-chitin-und-chitosan-nachhaltig-herstellen.html

- Fungal Cell Walls
- Chitin and Chitosan
- Mycoparasitism and Biocontrol
- Molecular cloning & transformation to generate loss-of-function mutants by gene knock-out or enhance functionalities by targeted overexpression of genes
- Gene expression analysis qRT-PCRs and RNA-Seq to investigate the expression of target genes and whole transcriptomes (in cooperation with Dr. Martin Münsterkötter)
- Biocontrol assays e. g. fungal-fungal confrontation assays, impact of cell wall components on growth of bacterial and fungal crop pests
- Polysaccharide analysis to monitor the highly adaptive composition of the fungal cell walls (in cooperation with Prof. Vincent Bulone)
- Protein production and analysis in fungal expression systems, and their application for polysaccharide processing and degradation used in industrial application
- Kappel, L., Münsterkötter, M., Sipos, G., Escobar Rodriguez, C., and Gruber, S. (2020). Chitin and chitosan remodeling defines vegetative development and Trichoderma biocontrol. PLoS Pathog 16, 2, e1008320

Projects

Dissecting functional roles of different chitin synthases in Trichoderma atroviride - In the FWF project V409 chitin and chitosan in T. atroviride are investigated as essential components in the fungal cell wall. Their amount and composition possibly (co-)defines the cell wall plasticity. Our research focuses on the characterization of chitin synthases and chitin deacetylases in vegetative development and during mycoparasitism

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FFG Bridge 1 “Fungal chitosan II - Sustainable Production and Application of Green Products in Biocontrol and Industry” located at FH Campus Wien, Bioengineering alternative production pathways for chitosan and possibilities for its application in biocontrol are investigated.

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Dynamic Cell Wall Architecture in Trichoderma Mycoparasitism - With our approach, we will be able to draw the first, holistic picture of the spatial and interdependent processes of cell wall remodeling in T. atroviride as model organism for mycoparasitism. The developed chitosan affinity probe will be a versatile, reliable tool for this project and future studies to illuminate the chitosan layer in vivo and in situ. The novel insights could also be transferred to pathogenic fungi for humans, animals and plants.

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People

Group Leader

Mag. Dr. Sabine Gruber

University of Innsbruck - Departement of Microbiology
sabine.gruber@uibk.ac.at
+43 1 6066877 3675

Group Members

Lisa Kappel, Dr.

Key Scientist; Chitin and chitosan metabolism in Trichoderma spp.; Cell wall architecture of Trichoderma spp., homologous Trichoderma enzyme expression systems; lisa.kappel@uibk.ac.at; lisa.kappel@fh-campuswien.ac.at

Karl Metzger, Dr.

Key Scientist; Trichoderma spp. as potent submerged fermentation hosts; karl.metzger@fh-campuswien.ac.at