Killer Yeasts As A Source of Novel Antifungal Toxins

Every year, fungal disease kills more than one million people and destroys over 70% of some crop harvests. As our global population grows, efforts to combat fungal pathogens are becoming increasingly important. In order to identify and characterize novel antifungals, our project examines the various antibiotic toxins produced among Saccharomyces yeast species. We have assayed the killing ability of these toxins against other yeasts, and continue to find varying levels of lethality both between and within species. Our results suggest a species-specificity unique to each toxin and its yeast host. To further understand the determinants of yeast vulnerability and resistance, we are developing a novel protocol for next-generation sequencing of the double-stranded RNA fragments suspected to encode the toxins. Analysis of these sequences will provide insight to toxin mechanisms, and pave the way for future engineering of toxins to target medically and commercially relevant fungal pathogens