Corinna Probst

Duke University | DU · Department of Medicine

Cryptococcus neoformans is an opportunistic human fungal pathogen capable of surviving in a wide range of environments and hosts. It has been developed as a model organism to study fungal pathogenesis due to its fully sequenced haploid genome and optimized gene deletion and mutagenesis protocols. These methods have greatly aided in determining the...

Fungi often adapt to environmental stress by altering their size, shape, or rate of cell division. These morphological changes require reorganization of the cell wall, a structural feature external to the cell membrane composed of highly interconnected polysaccharides and glycoproteins. Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are copper-depende...

Fungi often adapt to environmental stress by altering their size, shape, or rate of cell division. These morphological changes require reorganization of the cell wall, a structural feature external to the cell membrane composed of highly interconnected polysaccharides and glycoproteins. Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are copper-depende...

Copper homeostasis mechanisms are essential for microbial adaption to changing copper levels within the host during infection. In the opportunistic fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans ( Cn ), the Cn Cbi1/Bim1 protein is a newly identified copper binding and release protein that is highly induced during copper limitation. Recent studies demonstr...

Copper homeostasis mechanisms are essential for microbial adaption to changing copper levels within the host during infection. In the opportunistic fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans ( Cn ), the Cn Cbi1/Bim1 protein is a newly identified copper binding and release protein that is highly induced during copper limitation. Recent studies demonstr...

The molybdenum cofactor (Moco) is found in the active site of numerous important enzymes that are critical to biological processes. The bidentate ligand that chelates molybdenum in Moco is the pyranopterin dithiolene (molybdopterin, MPT). However, neither the mechanism of molybdate insertion into MPT nor the structure of Moco prior to its insertion...

Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase (LPMO) and copper binding protein CopC share a similar mononuclear copper site. This site is defined by an N-terminal histidine and a second internal histidine side chain in a configuration called the histidine brace. To understand better the determinants of reactivity, the biochemical and structural properties of...

Infection by the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans causes lethal meningitis, primarily in immune-compromised individuals. Colonization of the brain by C. neoformans is dependent on copper (Cu) acquisition from the host, which drives critical virulence mechanisms. While C. neoformans Cu+ import and virulence are dependent on the Ctr1 and Ctr4...

The ability of the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans to adapt to variable copper (Cu) environments within the host is key for successful dissemination and colonization. During pulmonary infection, host alveolar macrophages compartmentalize Cu into the phagosome and C. neoformans Cu-detoxifying metallothioneins, MT1 and MT2, are required...

The molybdenum cofactor (Moco) is a redox active prosthetic group, essentially required for numerous enzyme-catalyzed two electron transfer reactions. Moco is synthesized by an evolutionary old and highly conserved multi-step pathway. In the last step of Moco biosynthesis the molybdenum centre is inserted into the final Moco precursor adenylated mo...

Besides their role as powerhouses, mitochondria play a pivotal role in the spatial organization of numerous enzymatic functions. They are connected to the ER and many pathways are organized through the mitochondrial membranes. Thus, the precise definition of mitochondrial proteomes remains a challenging task. Here, we have established a proteomic s...

We established an expression and purification procedure for recombinant protein production in Neurospora crassa (N. crassa). This Strep-tag® based system was successfully used for purifying recombinant N. crassa nitrate reductase (NR), whose enzymatic activity was compared to recombinant N. crassa NR purified from Escherichia coli. The purity of th...

Molybdenum (Mo) is a trace element that is essential for important cellular processes. To gain biological activity, Mo must be complexed in the molybdenum cofactor (Moco), a pterin derivative of low molecular weight. Moco synthesis is a multi-step pathway that involves a variable number of genes in eukaryotes, which are assigned to four steps of eu...