DUKE MYCOLOGY RESEARCH UNIT
Faculty and Research

Heitman Lab Members

Xuying Wang Post-Doctoral Fellow 312 CARL Building Box 3546 DUMC Durham, N.C. 27710  Phone: 919.684.9702 Fax: 919.684.5458 Email: xuying.wang@duke.edu

I am originally from China. In the fall of 2003, I came to Marquette University in Wisconsin, where I received my doctoral training under the supervision of Dr. James Anderson. My thesis was focused on identification and characterization of a three-protein complex, Trf4p-Air2p-Mtr4p (TRAMP) complex in S. cerevisiae, which is involved in a new identified RNA surveillance pathway. In my study, I found that effective turnover of many incorrectly processed RNAs, including hypomodified tRNAiMet, requires the TRAMP complex, which appends a short polyA tail to the RNA designated for decay that stimulates RNA degradation by the exosome. I also biochemically characterized Mtr4p as a RNA helicase and demonstrated that its helicase activity is necessary for the RNA degradation processes.

After receiving my Ph.D. degree in December 2008, I joined the Heitman lab in January 2009 and switched my focus from baker’s yeast to pathogenic fungi. Now I am interested in the RNAi pathway in Crypotococcus and also I am characterizing certain conserved genes at mating locus in Crypotococcus.