Project description:The Tor kinase is one of the major regulatory nodes in a eukaryotic cell and until now, little is known about this kinase in filamentous fungi. Here, we analysed the Tor kinase in Aspergillus fumigatus, which is the most important airborne fungal pathogen of humans and the main causative agent of invasive aspergillosis. Because deletion of the single tor gene of A. fumigatus was apparently lethal, we generated a conditional lethal tor mutant. This was achieved by fusing the tor gene with the inducible xylose promoter and replacing the endogenous tor gene by the inducible xylp-tor gene cassette. The generated transgenic strain opened up the possibility to activate or silence the tor gene under controlled conditions. Since we did not observe any effect of rapamycin on Tor of A. fumigatus, the generation of the inducible Tor gene was even more valuable for an in-depth analysis of the Tor kinase. By LC-MS/MS analyses of mycelial proteins we identified the regulatory network of Tor. Tor controls a variety of genes and proteins involved in nutrient sensing, stress response, cell cycle progression, protein biosynthesis and degradation. Tor is a major kinase responsible for protein import into the mitochondria, and consequently responsible for the correct function of most processes occurring into these organelles, e.g. respiration and ornithine metabolism. Regulation of iron acquisition by Tor was found to be independent of the HapX transcription factor.
Project description:MiRNA plays an important role in post-transcriptional gene regulation in plants. Whether TOR is involved in post-transcriptional gene regulation remains unclear in potato and other plants. In this study, we conducted the high-throughput sequencing of genome-wide miRNAs in the potato seedlings for profiling their expression patterns and identifying TOR related miRNAs in potato.
Project description:gnp_blan06_torpten - rnai tor time course - The impact of the TOR pathway on growth and stress responses. Modification of translational and transcriptional profiles in Tor-inducible RNAi mutants and identification of TOR targets.
Project description:The goal of this experiment was to explore the molecular network of glucose-TOR signaling in Arabidopsis seedling autotrophic transition stage. We used the whole-genome microarrays to detail the global program of gene expression mediated by glucose and TOR.