Anna Maria Johansson

I am a researcher that find all areas of genetics interesting. I work with research projects on several different domestic species. I am also teaching on several courses and supervise a few bachelor theses and master theses every year.

I am head of the division of Genetics, Breeding, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics since January 2025.   

I am involved in several research projects about genetic diversity and population structure in Swedish breeds of chicken, sheep, cattle, goat, and pig as well as in Bolivian llamas and alpacas. I have collaborations about ancient DNA in sheep and cattle.

I am also doing research on important production traits and health traits in farm animals. In sheep I am investigating wool colour and in goat I am invesitgating milk traits and disease resistance. I also have a project about gonadal hypoplasia (a fertility problem) and the disease ichthyosis in cattle. In addition I am also involved in a project about meat quality in pigs. 

I am course leader and examiner of the online course Basic Animal Breeding nad Genetics.

I am also teaching in other courses, mainly about population genetics, evolution, sheep breeding, programming in R.

I like to supervise bachelor theses and master theses in topics related to my research projects. I usually supervise a few students every year and welcome new students to do their bachelor thesis or master thesis in one of my projects. 

I have been main supervisor of three PhD students and co-supervisor of five students that have defended their theses. I am currently co-supervisor of three PhD students.

I have supervised 50 degree projects, 29 at master level and 21 at bachelor level.

Supervised PhD students, completed:

Abiye Shenkut Abebe, 2022 (co-supervisor)

Hadeer Abo Shady, 2020 (co-supervisor)

Vinicius da Silva, 2020 (main supervisor)

Christina Rochus, 2017 (main supervisor)

Merina Shrestha, 2017 (main supervisor since August 2015)

Xiaowei Mao,  2016 (co-supervisor)

Emebet Moreda, 2014 (co-supervisor)

Muhammad Ahsan, 2014 (co-supervisor)

PhD students at present

Qasim Mashood, planned to defend his thesis in 2026 (co-supervisor)

Pilar Roman, planned to defend her thesis in 2027 (co-supervisor)

Andreas Lundberg, planned to defend his thesis in 2030 (co-supervisor)

postdoc supervision

Ajith Harish, 2020-2022

• MSc in Biology, Lund university, 2002
• PhD in Genetics, Lund university, 2007
• Postdoc at SLU 2007-2011
• Researcher at SLU 2012-
• Director of undergraduate studies Feb 2012-Aug 2013, Jul 2017-Dec 2024
• associate professor in population genetics 2015

Johnsson M, Johansson AM. 2025. Genome of the extinct Gotland cattle breed. BMC Genomics. 2025 26(1), 1093. doi: 10.1186/s12864-025-12382-3

Harish A, Lopes Pinto FA, Eriksson S, Johansson AM. 2024. Genetic diversity and recent ancestry based on whole-genome sequencing of endangered Swedish cattle breeds. BMC Genomics 25, 89 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-024-09959-9

Eriksson S, Strandberg E, Johansson AM. 2023. Changes in genomic inbreeding and diversity over half a century in Swedish Red and Swedish Holstein dairy cattle. Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics 140 (3), 295-303. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbg.12758

Johansson M, Lundh Å, Johansson AM. 2023. Relation between αs1-casein, genotype and quality traits of milk from Swedish dairy goats. Journal of Dairy Sciences 106 (8): 5582-5592. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2022-22857

Rochus CM, Jonas E, Johansson AM. 2020. Population structure of five native sheep breeds of Sweden estimated with high density SNP genotypes. BMC Genetics 21:27. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-020-0827-8 

Johansson AM, Pettersson ME, Siegel PB, Carlborg Ö. 2010. Genome-wide effects of long-term divergent selection. PLoS Genetics 6(11): e1001188. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1001188