EESS talk on "Beyond mere survival: How some fungi thrive where most life falters"

Event details
Date | 11.03.2025 |
Hour | 12:15 › 13:15 |
Speaker | Dr. Cene Gostinčar, University of Ljubljana |
Location | Online |
Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Event Language | English |
Abstract:
In recent decades, life has been discovered in increasingly adverse conditions, many of which were once considered sterile. Today, very few environments remain on our planet where some form of life has not been found. While the biology of extremes is most commonly associated with bacteria and even more so with archaea, extremophiles are also found among eukaryotes, despite the greater complexity of their cells. Our research group has been studying the life of fungi in extreme environments for over two decades. We have studied different survival strategies and adaptationmechanisms in extremotolerant and extremophilic fungi. However, a comprehensive understanding of their biology remains elusive. Experimental manipulation of most fungi from extreme environments is difficult due to their slow growth, pleomorphic morphology, thick and recalcitrant cell walls and other factors. As an alternative, genomic studies have provided some unexpected insights into the genetic basis of extremotolerance. They have also shown that a phenotype as complex as extremotolerance is not easy to decipher, even with carefully designed, large-scale comparative studies. In this talk, we will briefly introduce the phenomenon of extremotolerant fungi and focus on the numerous adaptations that allow them to thrive in conditions that are lethal to most other species. We will explore why understanding extremotolerance is of great importance not only for basic research, but also for fields as diverse as biotechnology, agriculture and even the search for extraterrestrial life
Biography:
Assoc. Prof. Cene Gostinčar researches fungi from extreme environments: their diversity, adaptations and potential applications. He mainly uses bioinformatics, from genome and transcriptome sequencing, to genome assembly and annotation, comparative and population genomics. He also lectures university students on various topics in microbiology and molecular biology.
In recent decades, life has been discovered in increasingly adverse conditions, many of which were once considered sterile. Today, very few environments remain on our planet where some form of life has not been found. While the biology of extremes is most commonly associated with bacteria and even more so with archaea, extremophiles are also found among eukaryotes, despite the greater complexity of their cells. Our research group has been studying the life of fungi in extreme environments for over two decades. We have studied different survival strategies and adaptationmechanisms in extremotolerant and extremophilic fungi. However, a comprehensive understanding of their biology remains elusive. Experimental manipulation of most fungi from extreme environments is difficult due to their slow growth, pleomorphic morphology, thick and recalcitrant cell walls and other factors. As an alternative, genomic studies have provided some unexpected insights into the genetic basis of extremotolerance. They have also shown that a phenotype as complex as extremotolerance is not easy to decipher, even with carefully designed, large-scale comparative studies. In this talk, we will briefly introduce the phenomenon of extremotolerant fungi and focus on the numerous adaptations that allow them to thrive in conditions that are lethal to most other species. We will explore why understanding extremotolerance is of great importance not only for basic research, but also for fields as diverse as biotechnology, agriculture and even the search for extraterrestrial life
Biography:
Assoc. Prof. Cene Gostinčar researches fungi from extreme environments: their diversity, adaptations and potential applications. He mainly uses bioinformatics, from genome and transcriptome sequencing, to genome assembly and annotation, comparative and population genomics. He also lectures university students on various topics in microbiology and molecular biology.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- EESS - IIE
Contact
- Prof. Ianina Altshuler, MACE