Dr Anandi Bierman

Postdoctoral researcher

Host: Prof. John Terblanche, co-host: Prof. Francois Roets

The common thread connecting my research has always been genetic markers. The love-affair started with parentage testing using microsatellites in horses during my MSc. and continued with linkage mapping in wheat using AFLPs during my PhD.

As the ‘omics’ era exploded during the course of my postgraduate studies I was compelled to learn the necessary skills to keep up with the field and subsequently sequenced chromosome 7D in wheat, took up a Post-doctoral fellowship in Bioinformatics for a year and dabbled in assembling the genome of the Black Soldier Fly.

For this Post-doctoral fellowship, I venture on to genome-wide SNPs in the Polyphagous Shothole Borer (PSHB). Marrying genomics and SNP markers will provide a superior resolution for investigating population structure, fine scale movement and patterns of relatedness in this beetle. Understanding dispersal rates and the factors influencing dispersal can assist management strategies by delineating management units and prescribing a scale for any eradication efforts.