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The University of Southern Mississippi

Honors Theses

Histoplasma capsulatum

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The Dna Damage Response Gene Ddr48 Regulates Sterol Synthesis Genes To Confer Antifungal Resistance To The Pathogenic Fungus Histoplasma Capsulatum, Gabriella Reyes May 2019

The Dna Damage Response Gene Ddr48 Regulates Sterol Synthesis Genes To Confer Antifungal Resistance To The Pathogenic Fungus Histoplasma Capsulatum, Gabriella Reyes

Honors Theses

Histoplasma capsulatum is a dimorphic fungal pathogen that is endemic to the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi river valley regions. The fungus grows as a mold at environmental temperatures (25C) and transforms into a unicellular yeast upon inhalation by a mammalian host (37C). The mold to yeast shift is required for pathogenicity in host organisms, where the potentially fatal disease, histoplasmosis, can present. This study aims to characterize the DNA damage response protein DDR48 and the role that it plays in combating cellular stressors in H. capsulatum. We found that DDR48 is expressed strongly in the mold phase but expressed only …


Study Of The Function Of The Mold Specific Gene Ms95 In Dna Repair In The Pathogenic, Dimorphic Fungus Histoplasma Capsulatum, Erin M. Smith May 2014

Study Of The Function Of The Mold Specific Gene Ms95 In Dna Repair In The Pathogenic, Dimorphic Fungus Histoplasma Capsulatum, Erin M. Smith

Honors Theses

Histoplasma capsulatum (Hc) is a dimorphic fungus that is the etiologic agent of the respiratory infection Histoplasmosis that is mediated by a shift from the mold phase to the pathogenic yeast phase. Genes have been identified that are specific to the mold or yeast phase in order to study the molecular biology of this shift. MS95 was identified in a subtractive cDNA library that was enriched for mold-specific genes, and has been found to be homologous to the DNA damage-responsive gene DDR48, which functions in DNA repair in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In order to elucidate the function of MS95, a …


Characterization Of The Function Of A Mold Specific Gene, Ms95, In The Pathogenic Dimorphic Fungus, Histoplasma Capsulatum, Danielle J. Williamson May 2013

Characterization Of The Function Of A Mold Specific Gene, Ms95, In The Pathogenic Dimorphic Fungus, Histoplasma Capsulatum, Danielle J. Williamson

Honors Theses

Histoplasma capsulatum is a dimorphic fungus that causes the respiratory disease histoplasmosis. At 25°C, the fungus grows as a multicellular mold in soils contaminated by bird and bat excreta. Once the soil is disturbed, spores are released and inhaled into the lungs. The fungus shifts to a unicellular, pathogenic yeast within the lungs at 37°C. Our laboratory’s main objective is to characterize the genes that are involved in the mold-to-yeast dimorphism. This study focuses on the mold-specific gene, MS95. According to The Broad Institute Histoplasma capsulatum GenBank Blastx search, MS95 has several homologs, including the well-studied Saccharomyces cerevisiae. …