"We're truly excited about this project, and the fact that it will be centered at Dartmouth Medical School," said Drs. Jay Dunlap and Jennifer Loros, both professors of genetics and biochemistry at Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) who will lead two of the four collaborative projects. Other institutions listed in the grant include UC Berkeley, UCLA, MIT, University of New Mexico, University of Missouri and Oregon Health Sciences University.
"Filamentous fungi, for which Neurospora is perhaps the best understood model organism, have major significance on the planet," said Dunlap. "They include a number of significant animal, human and plant pathogens, as well as a large number of strains used in industrial manufacture. This study will provide a foundation for a great deal of further work."
Neurospora crassa, better known as bread mold, is an important model in genetics research, although it has yet to be fully investigated. Fungi allied to Neurospora include several pathogens and have been manipulated to produce antibiotics and pharmaceuticals. While about 60 percent of the genes in Neurospora enable functions shared by other organisms including people, about 40 percent of the more than 10,000 genes in Neurospora are apparently novel and activate biochemical functions that will be new, suggesting that examination of the functions of these genes will be informative.
"Neurospora is a fascinating fungus," said DMS Dean Stephen
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Contact: Andy Nordhoff
DMS.Communications@Dartmouth.edu
603-650-1492
Dartmouth Medical School
12-May-2004