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3258 TAMU Office: Lab: Fax: 979-845-2891 |
Biography |
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Xiaorong Lin received her B. E. degree in Chemical Engineering from Dalian University of Technology, China, and her M. E. degrees in Biochemical Engineering from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. After she obtained her Ph.D. degree in fungal biology from the University of Georgia in 2003, she worked as a postdoctoral follow at Duke University Medical Center supported by the Molecular Mycology and Pathogenesis Training Program (MMPTP). She joined the Department of Biology at Texas A&M University in January 2008. |
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| Genetics of Fungal Virulence and Morphological Differentiation | |
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About 100,000 fungal species have been identified so far and 1.5 million are estimated to exist. Yet only few fungi are known to cause severe systemic infection in humans and most of them are environmental pathogens that do not require animal hosts to complete their life cycle. My research interests concern: (1) how do these few fungi evolve to be pathogenic, (2) what are the molecular mechanisms governing their virulence, and (3) how morphological differentiation impacts on fungal virulence. My laboratory will study two environmental pathogens that represent the two major phyla in the fungal kingdom: Aspergillus fumigatus, an ascomycetous filamentous fungus causing allergies and invasive aspergillosis, and Cryptococcus neoformans, a basidiomycetous dimorphic yeast causing pneumonia and cryptococcal meningitis. Both pathogens infect mostly immunocomprised individuals (AIDS patients, transplant patients, cancer patients, and individuals under immunosuppressive therapy) and cause fatal infections without proper treatment. Due to similarities in the basic eukaryotic biological machinery between fungal and mammalian cells, anti-fungal drugs are limited and many of them are either lack of potency or toxic to the host. The difficulty in curing fungal infections is also in part due to the development of antifungal-drug resistance. There is urgent need to understand fungal virulence and identify new antifungal drug targets. My laboratory will use a combination of microscopic, genetic, and molecular biology approaches to gain insights into the molecular bases of fungal virulence and differentiation, with the goal of seeking better approach for diagnosis, therapy, and prevention of fungal diseases. |
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| Selected Publications | |
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Lin X, Nielsen K, Patel S, and Heitman J. Impact of mating type, serotype, and ploidy on virulence of Cryptococcus neoformans. Infection and Immunity. in press. Lin X, Litvintseva A, Nielsen K, Patel S, Floyd A, Mitchell TG, and Heitman J. AD hybrids of Cryptococcus neoformans: evidence of hybrid vigor and same sex mating in nature. PLoS Genetics. 2007, 3(10), e186. Litvintseva A, Lin X, Templeton I, Heitman J, and Mitchell TG. Many globally isolated AD hybrid strains of Cryptococcus neoformans originated in Africa. PLoS Pathogens. 2007, 3(8), e114 (1-9). Lin X and Heitman J. The biology of Cryptococcus neoformans species complex. Annual Review of Microbiology. 2006, 60: 60-105. Lin X, Huang J, Mitchell TG, and Heitman J. Virulence attributes and hyphal growth of Cryptococcus neoformans are quantitative traits and MAT allele enhances filamentation. PLoS Genetics. 2006, 2(11): e187 (1-14). Idnurn A, Bahn YS, Nielsen K, Lin X, Fraser JA, and Heitman J. Deciphering the model pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans. Nature Reviews Microbiology. 2005, 3(10): 753-64. Lin X, Hull CM, and Heitman J. Sexual reproduction between partners of the same mating-type in Cryptococcus neoformans. Nature. 2005, 434: 1017-21. Lin X and Momany M. Characterization of abnormal hyphal branching mutants ahbA1 and ahbB1 in Aspergillus nidulans. Fungal Genetics and Biology. 2004, 41(11): 998-1006. Guest G, Lin X, and Momany, M. The Rho1 homolog of Aspergillus nidulans is required for polar growth, branching and cell wall morphogenesis. Fungal Genetics and Biology. 2004, 41: 13-22. Lin X, Momany C., and Momany M. SwoHp, nucleoside diphosphate kinase, is essential in Aspergillus nidulans. Eukaryotic Cell. 2003, 1169–1177. Lin X and Momany, M. The Aspergillus nidulans swoC1 mutant shows defects in growth and development. Genetics. 2003, 165(2):543-54. |
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