Project description:Candida auris, listed as the “urgent antimicrobial resistance threat” by the CDC in 2023, is an emerging human fungal pathogen. It has resulted in several outbreaks in hospitals and other healthcare facilities which are associated with high mortality rates, ranging from 30 to 60% due to its extensive multidrug resistance to all three classes of antifungal agents (azoles, polyenes, and echinocandins). However, there is limited evidence on its virulence, pathogenicity determinants, and complex host-pathogen interactions4. Understanding the pathogenic mechanism is an important step toward rapidly addressing the new threats posed by C. auris. Here we performed a global transcriptomic analyses in the context of 32 stress conditions to explore the stress-response of C. auris. C. albicans was used for comparison.
Project description:<p>Microplastics, antibiotics, and heavy metals are co-occurring pollutants in wastewater, posing significant environmental risks and potential threats to human health. However, there is currently no effective wastewater treatment method for this type of combined pollution. This study establishes a novel dual-chamber fungal system by leveraging fungi’s remarkable capacity to degrade multiple pollutants in complex environments and their responsiveness to micro-voltage stimulation. Following treatment with this system, up to 84.28±2.85% of enrofloxacin (ENR) and 95.52±1.77% of Pb were removed. Meanwhile, under the trapping effect of fungal mycelium, more than 95% of polypropylene, polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride microplastics distributed in different water layer areas were removed. Multi-omics analysis revealed that micro-voltage enhanced fungal energy, amino acid, and cofactor metabolism, thereby altering fungal surface structural properties and increasing extracellular oxidase activity. These alterations improved the entrapment and aging of microplastics by fungal, while simultaneously promoting the decomposition of ENR and the mineralization/adsorption of Pb on the fungal surface. Furthermore, experiments conducted in genuine wastewater confirmed the stability and security of the micro-voltage driven fungal system under practical operating conditions, including organic load and ammonia nitrogen shocks. This study offers novel insights and promising avenues for addressing combined pollution.</p>
Project description:Dendritic cells (DC) are professional antigen presenting cells that develop from hematopoietic stem cells in bone marrow by successive steps of lineage commitment and differentiation. Different DC subsets were identified based on phenotype, localisation and function: (i) classical DC (cDC) and plasmacytoid DC (pDC) are found in lymphoid organs and (ii) migratory tissue DC are spread throughout peripheral organs, including Langerhans cells, the cutaneous contingent of DC. We have developed a two-step culture system that recapitulates DC development in vitro (Felker et al., J. Immunol. 185, 5326-5335, 2010). In this system multipotent hematopoietic progenitors (MPP) progress into DC-restricted common DC progenitors (CDP) and further into the two major DC subsets cDC and pDC. We employed chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) with deep sequencing (ChIP-seq) to determine the dynamics of H3K27ac occupancy in MPP, CMP, cDC and pDC. Histone modification H3K27ac and RNA-Seq in MPP, CDP, cDC and pDC
Project description:In C. elegans cdc-48.2(-/-) mutant animals, ER stress-mediated expression of the UPR ckb-2::GFP reporter transgene is abolished. Here, we have used this phenotype in a genome-wide RNAi screen to identify genes involved in the CDC-48.2 mediated ER stress transcription. Combined with a comparative proteomic analysis, this approach has allowed us to identify the AAA+ ATPase RUVB-2 as a novel regulator of the ER stress response and a CDC-48 degradation target.