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The research group Genomics and Fungal Molecular Biotechnology has received the concession of a project by the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), one of the most important genome sequencing and characterization centers in the world, under the Department of Energy of the States United.
This makes the University of Murcia (UMU) one of the two Spanish universities that will have access to this institution, and its principal investigator, Victoriano Garre Mula, in the coordinator of a project involving the universities of Seville, Duke ( United States) and Melbourne (Australia), together with the collaboration of the universities of Navarra, California Riverside (United States), Oregon (United States) and the Genomic Regulation Center of Barcelona.
This project, which will last three years, will determine if a specific chemical modification of the DNA (adenine methylation) regulates the expression of the genes of simple fungi, called basal, including the genes involved in the accumulation of lipids.
This assumes that basal fungi that accumulate lipids, used for the production of biodiesel, could be genetically engineered to increase the amount of fuel that is produced.
"With this proposal made to the JGI, it is sought to demonstrate that adenine methylation of genes is important for its expression in this type of fungi", explains Victoriano Garre, who adds that "it could generate interest for its participation in the accumulation of lipids, because if more lipids accumulate, you can get a larger amount of biofuel. "
The UMU group develops a line related to obtaining biodiesel from biomass of the basal fungus Mucor circinelloides, which is very rich in lipids that can easily be converted into biodiesel.
The signs are born of previous work done in the JGI.
In it, it was found that the genomes of basal fungi show high levels of methylation of adenines, practically absent in more complex fungi, which suggested that this DNA modification could determine whether a gene is expressed or not.
A regulation that has been previously detected in bacteria and some eukaryotes, including mammals, but without reaching the level of relevance that could have in this group of fungi.
After this hypothesis, the consortium of research groups led by the UMU proposed to the JGI to verify the same, based on their experience in basal fungi.
The JGI will be the one who carries out the complete investigation through its personnel and with its own means.
The work of the UMU group is based on coordinating the project, designing the experiments, generating the samples that will later be analyzed in the JGI and analyzing the results.
For this, the Victoriano Garre team has set to work to start supplying the samples.
In this call, the UMU Genomics team is not financed, "the American government finances its own researchers who are in the JGI doing the work, it is another form of financing," says Garre.
It is hoped that the results obtained from the JGI research can serve the researchers of the UMU to deepen in the other research fields in which they intervene.
Currently, the Genomics and Molecular Mushroom Biotechnology group studies the characterization of the fungal infection process of the same group as M. circinelloides, which causes mucormycosis, a disease for which there are no effective treatments and which has a mortality rate that can reach as high as 90%
"We are focused on determining which genes are involved in the infection process, which ones needs the fungus to be able to infect, with the aim of developing molecules that will fight the disease in the future," the researcher explains.
"If you know what the genes are, you can generate molecules against those genes to administer them to patients, and we continue to look for new genes involved in the process until we find one that can be a target to fight the infection."
"The awarding of this project is the result of the work of the current and previous members of my research group, but it would not have been possible for them to do so," concludes Victoriano Garre.
Source: Universidad de Murcia
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