The ultimate target of the project is to get a deeper understanding of the ecology of black microcolonial fungi and to analyze the cellular mechanisms that are responsible for their enormous stress tolerance. To this aim a system biology approach will be used for the first time in black fungi research. Black fungi isolated from rocks in Polar regions, from dry Mediterranean areas and black yeasts with phylogenetic relation to important human pathogens will be studied concerning their stress adaptations and their life strategies in extreme environments. In detail the aims are:

(1) To analyse the response of black fungi towards desiccation, temperature stress (high and low) and radioactivity on the level of the proteome. (2) To find and identify specific proteins related to cell protection. (3) To analyze on the basis of comparative proteome profiling if black fungi from different habitats - mammalian hosts, hot deserts, and cold deserts – share common patterns of adaptation (and thus common proteins expressed under stress conditions) or if they have different cellar responses to stress involving a set of different proteins. (4) To measure and define the time lag from the desiccated state to re-hydration and full metabolic activity and growth in accordance with natural environmental conditions. This will help to understand if the metabolism, proliferation and growth of these fungi are determined by fast diurnal cycles or by much slower seasonal climate changes.