Speaker:
Assistant Professor Ying Chang

Synopsis:
Fungi are ubiquitous but our understanding of their species and functional diversity is very limited. Less than 10% of estimated fungal diversity has been described, and among the described taxa, the ecological functions remain largely elusive. As sessile heterotrophs, fungi interact with the environment mostly by secreting various proteins outside of their cells to acquire food, to compete with other microbes and to fight against pathogens. So it is believed that the composition of fungal secretome is tightly linked to their food source (e.g., plants, or animals) and ecological guilds (e.g., pathogens, decomposers). Our lab works on the characterization of secretome content of the fungi across the whole Kingdom Fungi. We investigate how fungal secretome is shaped together by inheritance and lifestyle. Through the reconstruction of the evolutionary history of certain key enzymes, we are working on elucidating the major ecological transitions that fungi made through their ~1,000 millions years of evolution.

For enquiries, please contact:

Mr Ambert Ang
Phone: +65  65162711
Email: DBS_outreach@nus.edu.sg