Leader Privatdoz. Mag.rer.nat. Dr.rer.nat. Irina Druzhinina (habilitated in microbiology)

The group of Microbiology (initially as the project group Fungal Evolution and Biodiversity) was established in 2002, when the first application of molecular biology methods highlighted the urgent need for the study of microbial biodiversity. Since then, our research has focused on the diversity and evolution of filamentous fungi on the molecular level and on the development of the modern bioinformatic tools for their correct identification.

We are deeply interested in understanding the speciation process in mitosporic filamentous fungi and in the development of integrated DNA-based and metabolic species criteria that could be applied to the differentiation of these organisms. The main model organisms for our research are cosmopolitan fungi from the order Hypocreales; the mycoparasitic genus Hypocrea, including its mitosporic derivate Trichoderma and the plant pathogenic fungus Gibberella (mitosporic form Fusarium).

We are interested in whole genus screening for the most appropriate biotechnological agents because Trichoderma is an important industrial microorganism used in the production of extracellular enzymes and in agriculture as agents of biological control of plant pathogenic fungi. For this purpose, we constantly work on the development of multigene molecular DNA barcode methods for quick in silico identification of Hypocrea and Trichoderma.

Currently we are the most challenge by the comparative genomics of filamentous fungi as the first three genomes of Trichoderma species have been released to the publics and our group is deeply involved in the sequencing of the additional 4 species of Trichoderma. We are interested in the revealing the ecological genomics of Trichoderma when we aim to understand the biology of this industrially important microorganisms through the function and evolution of its genomes.

We are also interested in Trichoderma mycoparasism as a genus-wide trait of the fungus and in the screening various indigenous ecosystems for the best mycoparasitic strains of Trichoderma that can be locally applied for protection of such crops as coffee, cacao or banana. The recent results showed that Trichoderma may be used in arid agriculture as it contains halotolerant isolates. The project is of particular importance for Middle East and North Africa.

In addition to molecular diversity and evolution, we are interested in the in situ ecology of these organisms and their nutritional preferences and interactions with other microbionts in their ecosystem. For this reason, we direct our research towards the introduction of modern metagenomic and metatranscriptomic methods.

The other focus of our research is the functional biodiversity of filamentous fungi. We developed semi-high-throughput methods of phenotype profiling to study the response of fungi to various abiotic factors (illumination, temperature, carbon and nitrogen nutrition) and their interactions with other microorganisms in the environment.

The new branch of our research is the screening for novel Trichoderma hydrophobins, the small cystein-rich proteins, which have a potential of targeting enzymes to polymers. This project is developed in collaboration with Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB)  and university of Graz (Austria).

• Molecular Ecology of Trichoderma, metagenomic approach
• Evolution and diversity of Trichoderma Section Longibrachiatum
• Targeting enzymes to polymers

University of Vienna, Vienna Faculty of Life Sciences, Faculty Centre of Biodiversity

Diversity, ecology and evolution of Hypocrea (teleomorph of Trichoderma) in Central and Northern Europe. Cooperation partner Dr. Walter.M. Jaklitsch

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna Department for Agrobiotechnology, IFA-Tulln, Center for Analytical Chemistry , Metabolomics and Bioactive Compounds.

Diversity of Trichoderma peptaibols and their involvement in mycoparasitic reactions. Cooperation partner ao. Prof. Dr. Reiner Schuhmacher

Vienna University of Technology, Vienna

Faculty of Technical Chemistry, Institute of Material Chemistry, Department of Physical Chemistry of Aerosol Particles

Effect of fungal spores in high atmosphere on the processes of ice nucleation. Contact partners Mag. Bernhard Pummer and ao. Univ. Prof. Dr. Hinrich Grothe.

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna

Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Applied Microbiology

Phenotype diversity of industrial and wild-type isolates of wine yeasts. Cooperation partner Dr. Ksenija Lopandic

• Privatdoz. Mag.rer.nat. Dr.rer.nat. Irina Druzhinina
• Mag. Liliana Espino Tenorio de Rammer
• Mag. Monika Komon-Zelazowska
• Mag. Alexey Kopchinskiy
• Marym Abd El-Khalek Mohamed Marzouk
• Projektass.(FWF) Dipl.-Ing. Razieh Karimi Aghcheh
• Mag. Lea Atanasova
• Benigno Aquino