Andi Wilson

Andi Wilson completed a BSc in human genetics in 2012, a BSc honours in genetics in 2013 and an MSc in genetics in 2015, all at UP. She is enrolled for a PhD in genetics at the same institution.

From early on in her postgraduate career, Wilson has worked on the genetic systems governing sexual reproduction in a group of fungal plant pathogens.

Her PhD research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms that allow for unisexuality (a unique type of sexual reproduction) to take place. Described in only a few species thus far, unisexual reproduction is the term given to mating involving a single individual that takes place despite the absence of essential genes.

Understanding reproduction and how such species are able to spread provides us with a means of targeting pathogens, and thereby a way to prevent disease outbreaks.

Wilson has been the author of two publications, and has contributed to another three. These articles have been on her work in understanding unisexual reproduction and self-fertility, as well as genome sequencing and assembly.

She has also attended and presented at a number of national conferences, including the 2017 Fungal Genetics Conference, held in the US. In 2016, the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute based at the UP gave Wilson an award for Best MSc Student and a Mentorship Award.

In 2017, she spent two months at Pennsylvania State University on a research visit to develop a transformation protocol for the group of fungi she studies.