PhD student

My background is in biotechnology and molecular biology. In my PhD-projects I work most of my time in front of the computer with bioinformatics.

The projects I work with all involve the fungal species complex of Heterobasidion annosum s.l. These species are pathogens on a variety of conifer trees. There are several interesting sequencing projects going on with the Heterobasidion species and I am involved in the analysis of a lot of sequence data. The goal is to get a better understanding partly of fundamental evolutionary questions and partly of what genes that H. annosum s.l. are dependent on in order to be an effective pathogen in conifers.

Main projects

• Characterization of the North American P (Heterobasidion irregulare, isolate TC32-1) mitochondrial genome
• A polymorphic study of the mitochondrial genomes of 24 isolates in the European P (H. annosum s.s.) species
• A genome-wide association study of virulence in Heterobasidion annosum s.s.
• A comparative study of the mitochondrial genomes of the different Heterobasidion species

Supervisors

Jan Stenlid
Åke Olson
Mikael Brandström Durling
Magnus Karlsson