Tytti Vanhala

I have been working in the lab since 1993, hence can do pretty much everything in the genetics lab – even old-fashioned things. 

I worked in Finland, The Netherlands and Scotland before moving to Sweden. Here is a short summary of my life before SLU: 

MSc in genetics from Oulu, Finland, 1997 (MSc thesis about population genetics of chicken lines). PhD in plant breeding from Wageningen, The Netherlands, 2004 (thesis was about population and quantitative genetics of wild barley). Postdoc in Edinburgh, Scotland, 2001 - 2005 (Charlesworth group – molecular population genetics in Antirrhinum and Silene). Conservation officer at Forest Research, Forestry Commission, Roslin, UK, 2006 - 2012 (landscape genetics plus a lot of other thigs, even ecology). Freelancer within genetics in Sweden 2012 - 2019 (Linköping and SLU). 

What I usually do in the lab nowadays is: DNA and RNA extractions from all possible tissues and species (by hand or QiaSymphony robot), quantity and quality controls (Nanodrop, AccuBlue, Qubit, Tapestation), PCR or realtime PCR (fragment PCR, Taqman, cDNA, expression analyses), Sanger sequencing, SNP genotyping (Axiom array plates - GeneTitan). 

If needed (and if I have time), I can also help with analysis after lab work. 

What I have been working with before:  

Population genetics in chicken lines with SSR markers. First population genetic study with SSRs in different lines. The markers were ran in ALF those days.   

Discovering new microsatellites in chicken (or in fact the DNA we used was from a rooster 😊 ) with old-fashioned lab work (cloning) – that was 1995/6 in Wageningen. This time I was allowed to use ALF by myself. 

Project with wild barley: population genetics (AFLP markers), making a genetic map (AFLP and SSR markers), genome wide association analysis of growth rate related traits, and quantitative trait locus analyses of dormancy. Used at first radioactive PAGE gels, and later on moved to LiCor PAGE gels. 

The aim with the project with snapdragon (Antirrhinum) was to sequence (at that time we sent away for Sanger sequencing) and analyze different wild species for their flowering time associated genes.  

Making a genetic library for campion (Silene) and then analyzing and annotating the sequences.  Library construction was done back then also in the old-fashioned way with cloning.  

Work within Forest Research in Roslin: 

Landscape genetics of wood crickets and wood ants (study into habitat fragmentation); designed the project for an internal request from Forestry Commission, did the field work on Isle of Wight (crickets) and Scotland (ants), lab work (SSR, LiCor), analysis and article together with a landscape ecologist.  

Ecological experiment with aspen; designed the project and executed it. The aim was to make aspen flower in Scotland, which is very rare due to the climate. In the end I got them to flower.

Analysis help for ecological projects; yearly butterfly reserve analyses and analyses of juniper habitats. 

Species determination from scats; DNA extractions from several thousands of scats from Scotland and then realtime PCR (Taqman) to see whether the scat came from a fox or a pine marten. Found out that ecologists who picked and determined the species on the field were not very good at getting it right.  

Freelancer in Sweden:

Work at Linköping university; RNA extractions and expression analyses with grey peas (flowering time related), work with ancient DNA – extractions from old seeds (barley, protein content related).

Work at Ecology department, SLU; DNA extractions from thousands of insects (including dissecting digestive tracts from beetles and using them for DNA extraction) PCR with them and prepping for Illumina sequencing.