Nadja Schneller

For my PhD I am investigating genomic structure in the reef-building hard coral species Acropora kenti. As a first step, I have created two chromosome-level genomes for two lineages of this species that diverged half a million years ago and have adapted to different environmental conditions. To further investigate the genomic basis of divergence in A. kenti I am creating the first coral pangenome which will help me detect genomic structural variants associated with adaptation. This project is aimed gaining a better understanding of adaptation in hard corals which have built up impressive reef structures like the Great Barrier Reef over millions of years.