Browsing by Author "Bayram Akcapinar, Gunseli"

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At least three families of hyphosphere small secreted cysteine-rich proteins can optimize surface properties to a moderately hydrophilic state suitable for fungal attachment
(2022-01-01) Zhao, Zheng; Cai, Feng; Gao, Renwei; Ding, Mingyue; Jiang, Siqi; Chen, Peijie; Pang, Guan; Chenthamara, Komal; Shen, Qirong; Bayram Akcapinar, Gunseli; Druzhinina, Irina S.
The secretomes of filamentous fungi contain a diversity of small secreted cysteine-rich proteins (SSCPs) that have a variety of properties ranging from toxicity to surface activity. Some SSCPs are recognized by other organisms as indicators of fungal presence, but their function in fungi is not fully understood. We detected a new family of fungal surface-active SSCPs (saSSCPs), here named hyphosphere proteins (HFSs). An evolutionary analysis of the HFSs in Pezizomycotina revealed a unique pattern of eight single cysteine residues (C-CXXXC-C-C-C-C-C) and a long evolutionary history of multiple gene duplications and ancient interfungal lateral gene transfers, suggesting their functional significance for fungi with different lifestyles. Interestingly, recombinantly produced saSSCPs from three families (HFSs, hydrophobins and cerato-platanins) showed convergent surface-modulating activity on glass and on poly(ethylene-terephthalate), transforming their surfaces to a moderately hydrophilic state, which significantly favoured subsequent hyphal attachment. The addition of purified saSSCPs to the tomato rhizosphere had mixed effects on hyphal attachment to roots, while all tested saSSCPs had an adverse effect on plant growth in vitro. We propose that the exceptionally high diversity of saSSCPs in Trichoderma and other fungi evolved to efficiently condition various surfaces in the hyphosphere to a fungal-beneficial state.
Mutational landscape of SARS-CoV-2 genome in Turkey and impact of mutations on spike protein structure
(PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE, 2021-01-01) Hatirnaz Ng, Ozden; Akyoney, Sezer; Sahin, Ilayda; Soykam, Huseyin Okan; Bayram Akcapinar, Gunseli; Ozdemir, Ozkan; Kancagi, Derya Dilek; Sir Karakus, Gozde; Yurtsever, Bulut; Kocagoz, Ayse Sesin; Ovali, Ercument; Ozbek, Ugur
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic in March 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). As of May 25th, 2021 there were 2.059.941 SARS-COV2 genome sequences that have been submitted to the GISAID database, with numerous variations. Here, we aim to analyze the SARS-CoV-2 genome data submitted to the GISAID database from Turkey and to determine the variant and clade distributions by the end of May 2021, in accordance with their appearance timeline. We compared these findings to USA, Europe, and Asia data as well. We have also evaluated the effects of spike protein variations, detected in a group of genome sequences of 13 patients who applied to our clinic, by using 3D modeling algorithms. For this purpose, we analyzed 4607 SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences submitted by different lab centers from Turkey to the GISAID database between March 2020 and May 2021. Described mutations were also introduced in silico to the spike protein structure to analyze their isolated impacts on the protein structure. The most abundant clade was GR followed by G, GH, and GRY and we did not detect any V clade. The most common variant was B.1, followed by B.1.1, and the UK variant, B.1.1.7. Our results clearly show a concordance between the variant distributions, the number of cases, and the timelines of different variant accumulations in Turkey. The 3D simulations indicate an increase in the surface hydrophilicity of the reference spike protein and the detected mutations. There was less surface hydrophilicity increase in the Asp614Gly mutation, which exhibits a more compact conformation around the ACE-2 receptor binding domain region, rendering the structure in a ``down{''} conformation. Our genomic findings can help to model vaccination programs and protein modeling may lead to different approaches for COVID-19 treatment strategies.