Caitlin Price

Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew

Phylogeny and Population Statistics for a genus of mycorrhizal fungi

Mycorrhizal fungi form important symbiotic relationships with plants and play a key role in helping to maintain biodiversity and soil integrity. One such species includes Suillus a group of fungi that form symbiotic relationships with trees from the Pinaceae family. Caitlin has spent her time at Kew investigating the population dynamics of 10 UK species of Suillus, utilising both phylogenomic and population statistics to investigate population structure at a genome level.

Caitlin has had the opportunity to develop and apply her previous bioinformatic experience in a new biological system, fungi. She has built on her programming skills in bash, python and R and has enjoyed the opportunity to network and collaborate with other researchers.

She has gained useful and insightful experience in population genomics; she has explored the variety of software available and has learnt to handle the different genomic expectations in fungal systems. Caitlin has enjoyed investigating how much variation can occur between closely related populations even within a single species.

Caitlin has thoroughly enjoyed her time at Kew and is grateful for the opportunity to experience and interact with such a positive research environment.

Caitlin’s host organisation rated her PIPS experience as “excellent” and noted that she “was able to perform advanced bioinformatics analysis, contributing to an ongoing project.”