# Assembly and Function of the Yeast Spore Wall

> **NIH NIH R01** · STATE UNIVERSITY NEW YORK STONY BROOK · 2020 · $405,447

## Abstract

7. PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 Fungal infections are a significant public health problem and one difficulty in treatment of these
infections is the small number of available antifungal drugs. Moreover, existing treatments suffer both from
significant side effects and the frequent appearance of resistant strains. The cell wall is an essential organelle
of the fungal cell. Because the cell wall is essential for viability, drugs that inhibit fungal cell wall assembly are
potential antifungal agents. Indeed, one major class of current antifungals targets β-glucan synthase, a key
enzyme in cell wall synthesis. In budding yeast, the haploid genomes produced by meiosis are encapsulated
by a multi-layered spore wall, which allows spores to resist a variety of environmental stresses. The inner
layers of the spore wall are composed of mannan and β-glucan, similar to the vegetative cell wall. The outer
layers of the spore wall are comprised of the polysaccharide chitosan, the polyphenol dityrosine and a third,
poorly characterized component termed Chi. These outer spore wall components are absent from vegetative
cell walls and primarily responsible for the stress resistance of spores. Importantly, although chitosan and
dityrosine are absent from vegetative cell walls in budding yeast, they are present in the walls of pathogenic
fungi. The budding yeast spore wall therefore provides an excellent model system to study fungal wall
morphogenesis. This grant is focused on understanding the activity and regulation of conserved enzymes
involved in synthesis and assembly of different spore wall components with the long-term goal of identifying
new targets for antifungal drug development

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10000768
- **Project number:** 5R01GM072540-15
- **Recipient organization:** STATE UNIVERSITY NEW YORK STONY BROOK
- **Principal Investigator:** Aaron M Neiman
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $405,447
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2005-09-12 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10000768

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10000768, Assembly and Function of the Yeast Spore Wall (5R01GM072540-15). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10000768. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*