Research profile Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heinisch

The Heinisch group studies the biology of pro- and eukaryotic model organisms (E. coli, wine, beer, and baker’s yeast, other yeasts and fungi). Interests are both in basic science and applied aspects in the frame of signal transduction under stress, as well as the regulation of central carbohydrate metabolism. Applications relate to biotechnology (alcohol production, production of pharmaceutical proteins) and to medicine (causes of cancer, treatment of pathogenic fungi).

Research topics

• Signal transduction in oxidative stress response
• Signal transduction in fungal cell wall biosynthesis
• Regulation of filamentous growth in fungi
• Regulation of central carbohydrate metabolism in yeasts and bacteria

Model systems

• MAPK-mediated signal transduction in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Kluyveromyces lactis
• Growth and distribution of the fungus Ashbya gossypii
• Glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathway in E. coli, milk and baker’s yeast
• Genetics of the wine yeast Hanseniaspora uvarum

Methods

• Classical yeast genetics and tetrad analysis
• Construction and investigation of deletion and point mutants by modern molecular techniques
• Epistasis analyses to decode complex regulatory networks
• Fluorescence microscopy to study intracellular protein distribution
• Synthetic biology, genomics and metabolomics
• Determinination of specific enzyme activities

Selected publications

• Bertels LK, Fernández Murillo L, Heinisch JJ (2021):  The pentose phosphate pathway in yeasts – more than a poor cousin of glycolysis. Biomolecules, 11.
• Hühn J, Musielak M, Schmitz HP, Heinisch JJ (2020):  Fungal homologues of human Rac1 as emerging players in signal transduction and morphogenesis. Interntl Microbiol.
• Heinisch JJ, Rodicio R (2018):  Protein kinase C in fungi - more than just cell wall integrity. FEMS Microbiol Rev, 42.