The fungal kingdom has a huge and mainly unexplored reservoir of bioactive molecules. Secondary metabolism and differentiation are correlated processes in fungi that respond to various abiotic or biotic external triggers. LaeA and the velvet protein family will be discussed as fungal specific regulators which play a key role in coordinating secondary metabolism and differentiation but also plant pathogenicity of fungi.
Gerhard Braus (*1957) studied Biology at the University of Freiburg. He earned a PhD degree (1987) and the habilitation (1992) at the ETH Zürich. He was appointed as Associate Professor of Biochemistry at University of Erlangen in 1993 and Full Professor of Microbiology & Genetics in Göttingen in 1996. Additional periods included the Biocenter in Basel, the University of Georgia in Athens GA, and the BMS Institute of Functional Genomics, Princeton NJ. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the Akademie der Wissenschaften Göttingen.
Moderation: Professor Dr. Michael Hecker