1. What is the growing mechanism of filamentous fungi, such as N. crassa? Project by Thomas Lew Mentor: Dr. Michael Freitag

2. Why this important? Advances knowledge of fungal biology Could lead to a way to stop growth of infectious fungi (i.e. selective targeting)

3. Examples of Infectious Fungal Diseases Aspergillosis Fungal pneumonia http://www4.umdnj.edu/cswaweb/rad_teach/allasper.html

4. Why N. Crassa? One of the oldest genetic model Filamentous Easier to manipulate

7. What we think happens: Microtubule Organization Center (at nuclei) Apical Growth Body

8. Methods PCR – subcloning and N. crassa transformation Replace Mal3 MT end binding protein with GFP-tagged Mal3 MT Replace Tip1 MT binding protein with GFP-tagged Tip1 MT Microscopy Track growth and direction

9. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

10. GFP

12. http://www.nih.gov/science/models/neurospora/image.html

13. Results

15. Acknowledgements Howard Hughes Medical Institute Dr. Kevin Ahern Dr. Michael Freitag Dr. Michael Gross Grant Farr All the wonderful people at OSU that helped us out