FABI celebrated the first Prestige Seminar of the year, that of Anneri Lötter on 22 January, marking the successful completion of her PhD which is a ground-breaking study with great relevance for Eucalyptus tree breeding and commercial forestry.

Anneri’s PhD was completed under the primary supervision of Prof. Sanushka Naidoo, Prof. Zander Myburg and Dr Rian Pierneef as part of the FMG-EPPI Research group in FABI. The examiners for her thesis were Prof. Dave Edward of the University of Western Australia and Prof. Harry Wu of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). The internal examiner was Prof. Oliver Bezuidt.

Prof. Sanushka Naidoo recalled her first meeting Anneri as a UP undergraduate student and described her stellar journey through her postgraduate studies to become a rising star in the field of biotechnology and a role model for other young emerging researchers and academics. Anneri was awarded the Hofmeyr-Van Schaik Medal by the South African genetics Society in 2024 for the best published paper by a student in the category: Genetic Methodologies & Data Analysis. This award was in recognition of the paper “Haplogenome assembly reveals structural variation in Eucalyptus interspecific hybrids” was published in the high-impact factor journal GigaScience in 2023 from research work done for her MSc degree. Anneri was also recognised in 2025 with the Forestry South Africa “She is Forestry Postgraduate Award” for her pioneering research on the Eucalyptus grandispan-genome.

Eucalyptus grandis is an important commercial tree species but a more comprehensive understanding of the nature of genetic diversity contributing to complex traits in plants is important for trait improvement. Pangenomics has emerged as a transformative approach for understanding the full spectrum of genetic diversity within a species. By capturing the core genome, shared across all individuals, and the shell genome, which harbours unique, rare and variable genetic content, pangenome analyses provides a more complete and accurate view of genomic diversity than traditional single-reference approaches. Anneri’s ground-breaking research for the genus provides a critical foundation for exploring functional biology and deciphering genome evolution.