Nikhil Kumar Singh
Research interests
My research aims is to improve our understanding of virulence evolution in fungal pathogens. The model organism Zymoseptoria tritici is one of the major pathogens of wheat in Switzerland and across the world. Recent work showed that a multitude of genes are contributing to different aspects of the host-pathogen interaction. The goal of my project will be to establish a comprehensive understanding of how pathogenicity evolves taking into account various intrinsic and extrinsic factors e.g. effector genes, utilization of different carbon sources and environmental conditions. I will associate phenotypic variation among pathogen strains with polymorphism in the genome using genome-wide association studies (GWAS). GWAS has been extensively used to investigate human diseases and phenotypes in model plants. My studies on a plant pathogen will help elucidate the complexity in pathogenesis and ultimately lead to a better management of fungal infections of crops.
Curriculum
March 2017-present : PhD student, Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchatel, Switzerland.
2016-2017 : Master thesis in Prof. Jan van der Meer’s lab, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
Thesis title: “Spatial and temporal dynamics of soil community growth in presence of exogenous bacterial inoculant”
2015-2016 : Masters of Technology in Biotechnology, KIIT University, India.
2011-2015 : Bachelors of Technology, KIIT University, India.
