Biocommunication of Fungi

Witzany, Günther

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4264-2

Cited by 33 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 847 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Fungi feed on biotic surfaces, degrading them to soluble nutrients especially for plants. Fungi produce, release, and uptake a rich variety of semiochemicals for reproduction purposes, attack and defense activities, as well as developmental processes coordination and virulence (Witzany, 2012a). In single-celled fungi, we find quorum sensing, a similar communication pattern as in akaryotes.…”

Section: Eukaryotesmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…All these levels of sign-mediated interactions, i.e., communication processes can be investigated throughout all domains of life as demonstrated within the last decade (Witzany, 2010(Witzany, , 2011b(Witzany, , 2012a(Witzany, , 2014b(Witzany, , 2017bWitzany and Baluska, 2012b;Witzany and Nowacki, 2016). I developed biocommunication theory to investigate communication processes within and among cells, tissues, organs, and organisms as sign-mediated interactions.…”

Section: Life: the Communicative Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

What is Life?

Witzany¹

2020

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In searching for life in extraterrestrial space, it is essential to act based on an unequivocal definition of life. In the twentieth century, life was defined as cells that self-replicate, metabolize, and are open for mutations, without which genetic information would remain unchangeable, and evolution would be impossible. Current definitions of life derive from statistical mechanics, physics, and chemistry of the twentieth century in which life is considered to function machine like, ignoring a central role of communication. Recent observations show that context-dependent meaningful communication and network formation (and control) are central to all life forms. Evolutionary relevant new nucleotide sequences now appear to have originated from social agents such as viruses, their parasitic relatives, and related RNA networks, not from errors. By applying the known features of natural languages and communication, a new twenty-first century definition of life can be reached in which communicative interactions are central to all processes of life. A new definition of life must integrate the current empirical knowledge about interactions between cells, viruses, and RNA networks to provide a better explanatory power than the twentieth century narrative.

show abstract

Section: Eukaryotesmentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Life: the Communicative Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

What is Life?

Witzany¹

2020

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Vegetative/heterokaryon incompatibility during conspecific hyphal fusions is caused by genetic dissimilarities at the het loci many of which encode NRL-like proteins [ 45 ]. Specifically, coexpression of incompatible alleles at the same locus or incompatible alleles at different loci leads to compartmentalization and cell death of the heterokaryotic portions of the mycelium.…”

Section: Is Rcd Involved In Innate Immunity Of Fungi?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Innate immunity in fungi: Is regulated cell death involved?

Gaspar

Pawlowska

2022

PLoS Pathog

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The mechanisms of glycogen synthesis and degradation have been well characterized in many organisms, including bacteria, yeast and mammals, and both processes are carried out by the concerted action of a set of enzymes, the main control being the activities of glycogen synthase (EC 2.4.1.11) and glycogen phosphorylase (EC 2.4.1.1), respectively [1][2][3]. Its metabolism is under an intricate regulation that senses nutrient availability and other environmental conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A protein kinase screen of Neurospora crassa mutant strains reveals that the SNF1 protein kinase promotes glycogen synthase phosphorylation

Candido

Gonçalves

Felício

et al. 2014

Biochemical Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Glycogen functions as a carbohydrate reserve in a variety of organisms and its metabolism is highly regulated. The activities of glycogen synthase and glycogen phosphorylase, the rate-limiting enzymes of the synthesis and degradation processes, respectively, are regulated by allosteric modulation and reversible phosphorylation. To identify the protein kinases affecting glycogen metabolism in Neurospora crassa, we performed a screen of 84 serine/threonine kinase knockout strains. We identified multiple kinases that have already been described as controlling glycogen metabolism in different organisms, such as NcSNF1, NcPHO85, NcGSK3, NcPKA, PSK2 homologue and NcATG1. In addition, many hypothetical kinases have been implicated in the control of glycogen metabolism. Two kinases, NcIME-2 and NcNIMA, already functionally characterized but with no functions related to glycogen metabolism regulation, were also identified. Among the kinases identified, it is important to mention the role of NcSNF1. We showed in the present study that this kinase was implicated in glycogen synthase phosphorylation, as demonstrated by the higher levels of glycogen accumulated during growth, along with a higher glycogen synthase (GSN) ±glucose 6-phosphate activity ratio and a lesser set of phosphorylated GSN isoforms in strain Ncsnf1KO, when compared with the wild-type strain. The results led us to conclude that, in N. crassa, this kinase promotes phosphorylation of glycogen synthase either directly or indirectly, which is the opposite of what is described for Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The kinases also play a role in gene expression regulation, in that gdn, the gene encoding the debranching enzyme, was down-regulated by the proteins identified in the screen. Some kinases affected growth and development, suggesting a connection linking glycogen metabolism with cell growth and development.

show abstract

Biocommunication of Fungi

Cited by 33 publications

References 847 publications

What is Life?

What is Life?

Innate immunity in fungi: Is regulated cell death involved?

A protein kinase screen of Neurospora crassa mutant strains reveals that the SNF1 protein kinase promotes glycogen synthase phosphorylation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About