I am currently working as an intern for Prof. Mike Wingfield and Dr Seonju Marincowitz after recently completing my MSc in Genetics titled: "Characterization of hybridization events between three closely related species of Ceratocystis."

Hybridization, crucial for evolution and genome adaptation, is particularly significant in understanding plant pathogen emergence, potentially leading to highly destructive species surpassing parental strains. Self-fertile species in the family Ceratocystis were used as a model for fungal hybridization where a novel protocol to discern self-fertilization from outcrossing was developed. Evidence of biparental mitochondrial inheritance was noted, suggesting avenues for future research. Analysis of hybrid genomes revealed segregation distortion and genome mosaicism in hybrid genomes, contributing to understanding fungal hybridization dynamics. This work was supervised by Dr. Markus Wilken, Prof Emma Steenkamp and Prof Brenda Wingfield.

I did my Honours degree in Microbiology under the supervision of Dr Markus Wilken and I worked on the genetics behind the sexual reproductive strategy observed in the filamentous ascomycete, Thielaviopsis cerberus. This homothallic fungus was found to undergo unidirectional mating-type switching when the mating-type locus was characterised and analysed.

The work I am currently doing for Mike and Seonju is on the identification of fungal isolates within the Ophiostomatales group through Sanger sequencing. I use DNA extraction and Sanger sequencing to accurately characterize these fungi that come from different parts of the world.