Kai Fjær recently defended her thesis entitled “Whole genome sequencing with Oxford Nanopore and de novo genome assemblies of lipid-producing fungi in phylum Mucoromycota”. The focus of this work has been cultivation of 11 different stains of lipid producing fungi, the extraction and sequencing of their genomic DNA using long read nanopore technology, and construction of genome assembles for each of these. For 3 species this represents the first time their genomes have been sequenced and has allowed us to develop an accurate phylogeny of the phylum Mucoromycota from genomic data. Excitingly, the research also provides evidence of two species having experienced genome duplications, an event often considered rare in fungi.
Kai Fjær defended her MSc
