Eric was in the Johannesson group since 2015-2016, on a Carl Trygger scholarship. His research was on spore killing in the fungus Podospora anserina. Spore killing is the manifestation of a selfish gene that is cheating on Mendels first law of equal segregation, by inhibiting the development of spores that do not carry the gene. Such elements are known as meiotic drive elements or segregation distorters, and found in many different species. The Spore killers in Podospora are interesting because several distinguishable elements with a similar but not equally powerful killing mechanism have been found. Eric investigated the evolution of these elements with a mainly experimental approach, focusing on different fitness aspects of spore killing to find out which conditions favor Spore killer elements. Eric is now working as a research officer at Wageningen University
Johannesson Lab
at Stockholm University