Screening for Genes Important for Cold Acclimatization in Neurospora crassa

Faculty Sponsor

Michael Watters

College

Arts and Sciences

Discipline(s)

Biology

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Summer 7-28-2016

Abstract

The environmental conditions that life must contend with can vary widely.

Organisms have evolved a wide range of mechanisms for contending with

these changing conditions. For relatively simple, sessile organisms (such

as fungi), they must adapt themselves to the extremes of the environment.

When subjected to rapid drops of temperature (cold shock), Neurospora

responds with a dramatic, but temporary shift in its branching pattern. The

fungal response, seems to parallel the physiological response to similar

cold shock which has been observed in E. coli in which a set of genes is

activated transiently in order to adjust the cell for growth in the cold. While

the Neurospora response has been described morphologically, it has yet to

be examined to any serious extent genetically. This project aimed to begin

the genetic characterization of the cold shock response. Selected mutants

from the Neurospora knockout library were screened for their response to

cold shock with those displaying variation from the wild-type identified and

categorized according to phenotype. Several knockout mutants were

identified with altered responses. The genes impacted in these mutants are

listed and discussed below.

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