Ustilago maydis is a biotrophic fungus and causes smut disease in its host maize. In the last 15 years, research
made U. maydis to the sole model organism of plant-pathogenic basidiomycetes. Recently, its genome was fully
sequenced and genome wide expression analysis enabled the identification of gen-clusters coding for novel
secreted proteins which do play an important role during the infection process of the host plant maize. Our project
will focus on two virulence factors and their function during the infection of the host plant. Bioinformatic analysis
shows that the two virulence factors are coding probably for Cutinases. This group of esterases plays possibly a
role at the early stage of infection when the fungus penetrates the protective cuticle of the host-plant. Also for
applied research cutinases are an interesting group of enzymes because preliminary work shows that they have the
potential to degrade plastic and may play a role in future waste cleanup [1, 2]. Furthermore the possible role of the
plant as a trigger for the expression of those two virulence factors and the regulators of their expression in the
fungus will be investigated. The identification of the factors involved in the control of the expression of the
virulence factors and to understand the mechanism of their activation will be one main focus of this project.