Cytochalasans are natural substances that are produced by fungi and have numerous potent biological activities. They bind strongly to actin and thus drastically influence eukaryotic cells. In addition, they also show remarkable bioactivities in prokaryotes, where actin cannot be the target. They inhibit protein synthesis, sugar transport, plant growth, tumor necrosis factor and angiogenesis and are involved in immunosuppression as well as virulence and avirulence of fungi against plants and insects, although most of the molecular mechanisms underlying these processes are unknown. Cytochalasans consist of amino acids and polyketides and are often oxidatively modified. Several hundred representatives are known, yet very few systematic studies of structure-activity relationships have been performed because very few cytochalasans are commercially available.
The proposed CytoLabs research group aims to address these problems through a systematic and integrated collaboration of different groups with expertise in discovery, chemical synthesis, metabolic engineering, cell biology, in vivo and in vitro biochemistry, in planta studies and ecological studies of cytochalasans. The aim is to apply modern synthetic chemistry (Kalesse, Klahn) and synthetic biology (Cox) to rapidly generate known and new cytochalasans.
Contact at TU Braunschweig: Prof. Dr. Klemens Rottner - Institute of Zoology
