Elina Palonen

Turku Centre for Biotechnology
Supervisor: Juhani Soini
Funding: other
Date: 02/05/2007

Development of bioinformatics analysis tools for oligonucleotide-based microarray analysis in search for novel Quorum Sensing molecules in industrially important fermenting fungi

Quorum Sensing is a phenomenon where a microbial population communicates in a synchronized manner through small, signalling Quorum molecules in response to changes in population density. The response takes place at the transcriptional level leading to changes in expression levels of genes involved in Quorum Sensing. While Quorum Sensing has been widely studied in bacteria, there clearly is a demand for these studies in filamentous fungi and basidiomycetes. To elucidate the mechanism of Quorum Sensing in fungi we intend to exploit and develop bioinformatics analysis tools for subsequent DNA microarray analyses. This work requires advanced bioinformatics analysis to resolve the genomes of those fungi that exist as raw sequences and are to be studied, in order to carry out the design of DNA microarrays. The oligonucleotide-microarray design will be validated both at genomic level by performing comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) and by gene expression profiling analysis. This work will constitute the DNA microarray analysis part in a collaborative multidisciplinary "omics" initiative of a Quorum EU-Consortium to screen and characterize novel Quorum Sensing molecules. For successful conduction of the project state-of-the-art bioinformatics tools need to be developed.