PD Dr. Reinhard Guthke
Prediction of Gene Regulatory Networks Involved in the Differentiation, Secondary Metabolism and Cross Talk of Aspergillus nidulans

Abstract
The greatest progress in elucidation of the molecular regulation of the biosynthesis of a secondary metabolite has been made in the penicillin-producer A. nidulans, because classical genetic techniques can be applied to this fungus. First gene expression data were published and further data will be available at the HKI soon. These data and the available knowledge shall be used by integrated bioinformatic analysis to mathematically model gene regulatory networks involved in the regulation of the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. Various methods and bioinformatic tools for prediction of gene regulatory networks are available. Current activities are directed on further developments integrating various information sources, in particular gene expression data, genome sequence and gene functional information. Only few applications are known for fungi. They were not applied for A. nidulans so far. Gene expression data from the literature together with such data from the HKI combined with other available data, in particular genome sequence and gene functional information shall be exploited using bioinformatics algorithms for prediction of TFs and TFBSs applying an advanced version of our NetGenerator algorithm to predict gene regulatory networks in A. nidulans. The work will be performed by a bioinformatics PhD student in strong collaboration with experimentally working colleagues.

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