After completing my undergraduate at the University of Pretoria in Human Genetics, I found myself diving into the beautiful world of fungi in my Honours year. Here, I worked on the population genetics study of Pewenomyces kutranfy - the causal agent of a pitch canker disease on Araucaria araucana, the monkey puzzle tree native to Chile. 

I am now a second year MSc Genetics student looking into the pine needle pathogens affecting the pine plantations in Colombia. I will be doing a survey on which fungal pathogens are present on Pinus patula, P. maximinoi and P. tecunumanii. I will be honing in on two major pathogens, namely Dothistroma septosporum and Lecanosticta pharomachri - the latter of which is relatively new to the area. 

I will be looking at the haplotypic diversity of D. septosporum as well as which mating types are present in the area, since sexual structures have been identified on the pine needles. 

The population genetics of L. pharomachri has never been investigated, thus I will be using microsatellite marker data to do this. This will include designing primers to amplify microsatellite regions and using them to look into the population genetics structure of the population of L. pharomachri in this area. 

When I am not slaving away in the lab, I enjoy beinng on stage as a singer or dancer, swimming or cooking up a feast!