Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel

 

The laboratory was established in Kiel in 2001. Since then it is involved in different aspects of fungal molecular genetics. Many filamentous fungi possess the means to produce a variety of secondary metabolites some of which already have medical applications. Major interest is in the biological function of these secondary metabolites.

Using a combination of experimental ecology and functional genomic techniques, the function of secondary metabolites from moulds (e.g. mycotoxine) as a chemical defence in insectmould- interactions as well as the influence of these competitors at trophic interactions between insects currently are under investigation.

Microarrays of secondary metabolite biosynthetic genes of Aspergillus nidulans are used to identify target genes of the fungus being up- or downregulated when interacting with the antagonistic Drosophila larvae.

A random mutagenesis tool for filamentous fungi based on a transposable elements has been developed, which will be highly useful to generate knock-out mutants on a large scale. The laboratory also was involved in analysis and annotation of fungal genome sequences.

 

PI contact: Prof. Frank Kempken  fkempken (@) bot.uni-kiel.de

ww.uni-kiel.de

http://www.uni-kiel.de/Botanik/Kempken/english.shtml