Sonja Billerbeck

The paper identifies a co-evolved peptide-GPCR system in Ustilago maydis that senses host entry by releasing a hidden peptide ligand from the secreted protein Pit2, promoting fungal proliferation.

This paper shows that NgSte12(1) from N. glabratus can respond to heterologous GPCRs in S. cerevisiae but is unresponsive to its native GPCR pair.

This study resolves high-resolution structures of the C. auris ribosome in complex with three inhibitors, revealing unique features that may inform antifungal therapy development.

This study uses alanine scanning and computational methods to map sequence-function relationships in the yeast killer toxin K2, revealing key residues for activity and enabling engineering of enhanced toxicity and specificity.

The paper develops a workflow to identify and characterize antifungal environmental yeasts, finding 31% of 681 isolates show antagonism against pathogens, with 25% potentially secreting toxic proteins.

The paper characterizes pulcherriminic acid biosynthesis in yeast using a heterologous system, showing that K. lactis genes produce faster acid than Metschnikowia genes and that Pul3 mediates both uptake and export of the compound.

The paper identifies a 49-amino acid signal peptide from the yeast killer toxin K2 that functions as both a secretion signal and a self-protection immunity factor, enabling a modular toxin-antitoxin system.