Göttinger Graduiertenzentrum für Neurowissenschaften, Biophysik und Molekulare Biowissenschaften

Braus, Gerhard, Prof. Dr.

Professor of Microbiology and Genetics


  • 1983 Diploma (Biology), Albert-Ludwig University, Freiburg i. Br. (Germany)
  • 1987 Dr.sc.nat., Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zürich (Switzerland)
  • 1991 Habilitation (Microbiology), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zürich (Switzerland)
  • 1993 - 1996 Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Friedrich Alexander University, Erlangen (Germany)
  • since 1996 Professor of Microbiology (since 2001 Professor of Microbiology and Genetics) in Göttingen



Major Research Interests

The major focus of the laboratory is on the control of developmental programs, protein turnover, pathogenicity and the interplay between development and primary and secondary metabolism. Our models are eukaryotic microorganisms (yeasts and filamentous fungi):
(i) We are interested how light coordinates fungal development with fungal secondary metabolism and toxin production.
(ii) Nedd8 is a ubiquitin-like protein which is involved in the control of protein turnover. We study the Nedd8-system including the COP9 signalosome using fungi as model systems.
(iii) We are interested in the molecular control (protein turnover and translation) of adhesion as initial step in infection and biofilm formation.
(iv) We study fungi as models for Parkinson (yeast), fungi as pathogens of immunocompromised patients (A. fumigatus) and as plant pathogens (V. longisporum).


Homepage Department/Research Group

http://www.uni-goettingen.de/molmibio



Selected Recent Publications


  • Troppens DM, Köhler AM, Schlüter R, Hoppert M, Gerke J, Braus GH (2020) Hülle cells of Aspergillus nidulans with nuclear storage and developmental backup functions are reminiscent of multipotent stem cells. mBio 11: e01673-20
  • Köhler AM, Harting R, Langeneckert AE, Valerius O, Gerke J, Meister C, Braus GH (2019) Integration of fungal specific CandA-C1 into a trimeric CandA complex allowed splitting of the gene for the conserved receptor exchange factor of CullinA E3 ubiquitin ligases in Aspergilli. mBio 10, e01094-19.
  • Bui TT, Harting R, Braus-Stromeyer SA, Tran VT, Leonard M, Höfer A, Abelmann A, Bakti F, Valerius O, Schlüter R, Stanley CE, Ambrósio A, Braus GH (2019) Verticillium dahliae transcription factors Som1 and Vta3 control microsclerotia formation and sequential steps of plant root penetration and colonisation to induce disease. New Phytol. 221, 2138-2159.
  • Thieme KG, Gerke J, Sasse C, Valerius O, Thieme S, Karimi R, Heinrich AK, Finkgernagel F, Smith K, Bode HB, Freitag M, Ram AFJ, Braus GH (2018) Velvet domain protein VosA represses the zinc cluster transcription factor SclB regulatory network for Aspergillus nidulans asexual development, oxidative stress response and secondary metabolism. PLoS Genet 14, e1007511
  • Kolog Gulko M, Heinrich G, Gross C, Popova B, Valerius O, Neumann P, Ficner R, Braus GH (2018) Sem1 links proteasome stablitiy and specificity to multicellular development. PLoS Genet. 42, e1007141.
  • Shlezinger N, Irmer I, Dhingra S, Beattie SR, Cramer RA, Braus GH, Sharon A, Hohl TM (2017) Sterilizing immunity in the lung relies on targetting fungal apoptosis-like programmed cell death. Science 357, 1037-1041.
  • Opitz N, Schmitt K, Hofer-Pretz V, Neumann B, Krebber H, Braus GH, Valerius O (2017) Capturing the Asc1p/RACK1 microenvironment at the head region of the 40S ribosome with quantitative BioID. Mol. Cell. Proteomics. 16, 2199-2218.
  • Jöhnk B, Bayram Ö, Abelmann A, Heinekamp T, Mattern D, Brakhage AA, Jacobsen ID, Valerius O, Braus GH (2016) SCF ubiquitin ligase F-bxo protein Fbx15 controls nuclear co-repressor localization, stress response and virulence of the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. PLoS Pathogens 12(9), e1005899.
  • Kleinknecht A, Popova B, Lázaro DF, Pinho R, Valerius O, Outeiro TF, Braus GH (2016) C-terminal tyrosine residue modifications modulate the protective phosphorylation of serine-129 of a-synuclein in a yeast model of Parkinson´s disease. PLoS Genetics 12, e1006098.
  • Schinke J, Kolog Gulko M, Christmann M, Valerius O, Stumpf SK, Stirz M, Braus GH (2016) The DenA/DEN1 interacting phosphatase DipA controls septa positioning and phosphorylation-dependent stability of cytoplasmatic DenA/DEN1 during fungal development. PLoS Genetics 12, e1005949.
  • Sarikaya-Bayram Ö, Bayram Ö, Feussner L, Kim JH, Kim HS, Kaever A, Feussner I, Chae KS, Han DM, Han KH, Braus GH (2014) The membrane-bound VapA-VipC-VapB methyltransferase complex guides signal transduction for epigenetic and transcriptional control of fungal development. Dev. Cell 29, 1-15 [Journal Cover].
  • Ahmed YL, Gerke J, Park HS, Bayram Ö, Neumann P, Ni M, Dickmanns A, Kim SC, Hyuk JH Yu, Braus GH, Ficner R (2013) Fungal velvet regulators contain a DNA binding domain reminiscent of NF-B. PLoS Biol. 11, e1001750 [Synopsis to the paper in: PLoS Biol. 11, e1001751].