Miss Briar Harmer

MSc Student

Research Interests

Previously at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, where I obtained both my Undergraduate (a BSc degree majoring in Genetics and Zoology) and Honours (BSc Hons: Genetics) degrees, I am now situated at the University of Pretoria. Still busy being a student I am currently working towards obtaining a Masters in Genetics, a degree which has introduced me to the baffling world of fungi.

Unidirectional mating-type switching, a rather puzzling phenomenon, has become the basis for my research project. The event, common amongst ascomycetes, leads to changes in mating-type, allowing for once self-fertile individuals to become self-sterile. Previous research has shown that this switch is accompanied by a deletion in the MAT-2 mating-type gene. Just as details regarding the mechanism behind the switching process are unknown, so to is the extent to which this deletion occurs. So here I am currently busy exploring deletions in the MAT-2 mating-type gene of Ceratocystis albifundus, a pathogenic fungus associated with wattle wilt of Acacia mearnsii, in an effort to better understand what is being lost during a switching event.

Mating-type switching is, however, not only associated with changes in mating-type. Individuals of different mating types are believed to differ in regards to other characteristics such as growth rates or pathogenicity. I am therefore also seeking to ascertain whether or not the mating types of C. albifundus (MAT-1 and MAT-2) differ in their pathogenicity, a characteristic of C. albifundus that is of particular importance to the forestry industry.