Professor Patrick Sullivan
Professor of Biochemistry

MSc Otago (1965), PhD Otago (1967); Member of New Zealand Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1993); Fellow of Royal Society of New Zealand (1995); Member of International Molecular Biology Network for Asia and the Pacific Rim (1998).

Research interests

Pathogenic fungi

This research programme is concerned with the factors which confer pathogenicity on certain fungi and the identification of novel strategies to control fungal diseases.

Currently we are working with Candida albicans, the most common human fungal pathogen, Glomerella cingulata, the cause of bitter rot in apples and Venturia inaequalis, the cause of blackspot on apples.

The C. albicans project currently includes gene and protein studies of secreted aspartic proteinases, frequently cited as an important pathogenicity factors, and a family of glycosyl transferases which are implicated in the assembly, maturation and repair of the cell wall.

The project with G. cingulata and V. inaequalis is focused on identifying ways to disrupt reproduction and differentiation via the mating-factor signalling pathways and genes/proteins which contribute to infection processes.

Biochemistry of dairy micro-organisms

In collaboration with the New Zealand Dairy Research Institute we are studying the structure and function of cell wall degrading autolysins of Lactococcus lactis and the metabolism of galaco-oligosaccharides by Bifidobacterium lactis.

Selected publications

	Farley, P. C., Christeller, J. T., Sullivan, M. E., Sullivan P. A. and Laing, W. A. (2002) Analysis of the interaction between the aspartic peptidase inhibitor SQAPI and aspartic peptidases using surface plasmon resonance. J. Mol. Recognition 2002 May-Jun;15(3):135-44
	Pillidge, C. J., Rallabhandi, P. S. V. S., Tong, X-Z., Gopal, P. K., Farley, P. C. and Sullivan, P. A. (2002) Autolysins in Lactococcus lactis. Int. Dairy J. 12: 131-138.
Aspartic proteinases and their inhibitors
	Wu, T., Samaranayake, L.P., Leung, W.K. and Sullivan, P.A. (1999) Inhibition of growth and secreted aspartyl proteinase production in Candida albicans by lysozyme. J.Med Microbiol. 48:721-730.
	Farley, P.C. and Sullivan, P.A. (1998) The Rhizopus oryzae secreted aspartic proteinase gene family: an expression analysis of gene expression. Microbiology 144:2355-2366.
	Christeller, J.T., Farley, P.C., Ramsay, R.J., Sullivan, P.A. and Laing, W.A. (1998). Purification, characterization and cloning of an aspartic proteinase inhibitor from squash phloem exudate. European Journal of Biochemistry 254(1) : 160-167.
	Clark, S.J., Templeton, M.D. and Sullivan, P.A. (1997). A secreted aspartic proteinase from Glomerella cingulata : purification of the enzyme and molecular cloning of the cDNA. Microbiology 143 : 1395-1403.
	Smolenski, G., Sullivan, P.A., Cutfield, S.M. and Cutfield, J.F. (1997). Analysis of secreted aspartic proteinases from Candida albicans : purification and characterisation of individual Sap1, Sap2 and Sap3 isoenzymes. Microbiology 143 : 349-356.
Glycosyl transferases
	Cutfield, J.F., Sullivan, P.A. and Cutfield, S.M. (2000) Minor structural consequences of the alternative CUG codon usage (Ser for Leu) in Candida albicans exogucanase. Protein Engineering 13:735-738.
	Stubbs, H.J., Brasch, D.J., Emerson, G.W. and Sullivan, P.A. (1999) Hydrolase and transferase activities of the b-1,3 exoglucanase of Candida albicans. Eur. J. Biochem. 263:889-895.
	Cutfield, S.M., Davies, G.J., Murshudov, G., Anderson, B.F., Moody, P.C.E., Sullivan, P.A. and Cutfield, J.F. (1999) The Structure of the Exo-[Beta]-1,3-Glucanase from Candida albicans in Native and Bound Forms: Relationship between a Pocket and Groove in Family 5 Glycosyl Hydrolases. J Mol Biol 294(3):771-783.
	Mackenzie, L.F., Brooke, G.S., Cutfield, J.F., Sullivan, P.A. and Withers, S.G. (1997). Identification of Glu-330 as the catalytic nucleophile of Candida albicans exo-b(1,3)-glucanase. Journal of Biological Chemistry 272(6) : 3161-3167.
Lactic-acid bacteria
	Gopal, P.K., Sullivan, P.A. and Smart, J.B. (2001) Galacto-oligosaccharide as selective substrates for growth of Bifidobacterium lactis DR10 and Lactobacillus rhamosus DR20: Mechanism of Galacto-oligosaccharides Utilisation in Lactic Acid Bacteria. Int Dairy J. In press.
	Govinasamy-Lucey. R., Gopal, P.K., Sullivan, P.A. and Pillidge, C.J. (1999) Varying influence of AcmA and lactocepin activity on rates of autolysis of six commercial Lactococcus lactis cheese starter bacteria grown in milk. J. Dairy Res. 585-596.