PhD student
FABI has been my home for career and academic development since I first joined FABI in 2016 as a doctoral student working on transcriptional regulation biology in xylem development. Currently, I am part of the African Plant Systems biology for the Bioeconomy programme (APSB) group led by Prof. Eshchar Mizrachi. In APSB group we use systems biology, evo-devo approaches, genome engineering and synthetic biology to study important traits in African plants of ecological and economic importance. This includes how plants acquire, manage and invest sequestered carbon to adapt to low-nutrient environments, and create superior plant biomass. My postdoctoral research work is centred on the sequencing of the reference genomes of all species in the Strelitziaceae family, with he aim to address evolutionary questions, including evolutionary history and the unique developmental evolution of plant pigments.
Conference Proceedings & Awards
1. Takawira LT, Hadj Bachir I, Ployet R, Tulloch J, San Clemente H, Christie N, Grima-Pettenati J, Myburg AA, Mizrachi E, Mounet F, Hussey SG (2022) Functional investigation of five R2R3-MYB transcription factors associated with wood development in Eucalyptus. ComBio2022 conference (Poster Presentation)
2. Takawira LT, Mizrachi E, Myburg AA, Hussey SG. (2019) High-throughput identification of protein-DNA interactions of secondary cell wall-associated NAC and MYB transcription factors in Eucalyptus grandis. The 14th DOE Joint Genome Institute Annual Genomics of Energy & Environment User Meeting, San Francisco, CA (Best Ph.D. Student Poster award)
3. Takawira LT, Ployet R, Mizrachi E, Myburg AA, Hussey SG. (2019) A technical assessment study of DAP-seq based on Eucalyptus grandis MYB-family transcription factors. Department of Biochemistry, Genetics & Microbiology, University of Pretoria. (Poster Presentation)
4. Takawira LT, Mizrachi E, Myburg AA, Hussey SG. (2018) Identification of secondary cell wall-related MYB transcription factor binding motifs in Eucalyptus grandis. Department of Biochemistry, Genetics & Microbiology, University of Pretoria. (Best Ph.D. Oral Presentation award)
5. Takawira LT, Mizrachi E, Myburg AA, Hussey SG. Identification of secondary cell wall-related MYB transcription factor binding motifs in Eucalyptus grandis. (2018). The South African Genetics Society and the South African Society for Bioinformatics (SAGS/SASBi) conference, South Africa (Poster Presentation)
6. Takawira LT, Mizrachi E, Myburg AA, Hussey SG. Inferring secondary cell wall-associated transcriptional regulatory networks in Eucalyptus grandis through high-throughput DNA affinity purification sequencing. South African Journal of Botany. (2018) 1;115:329-30 (Best Ph.D. Poster in Physiology/Biotechnology award).
Scholarships
PhD, 2017: National Research Foundation (NRF) Grantholder-linked Student Bursary
1. Doctor of Philosophy in Genetics, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria, 2024
2. Master of Science in Biotechnology, Oxford Brookes University, 2015
3. Bachelor of Science in Biosciences (Honours), Middlesex University, 2013
Takawira LT, Mounet F, Mizrachi E, Myburg AA, Grima-Pettenati J, Rai A, Dupas A, Ladouce N, Christie N, San Clemente H, Thulloch J, Ployet R, Bachir H, Hussey SG. (2023) Functional investigation of five R2R3-MYB transcription factors associated with wood development in Eucalyptus using DAP-seq-ML. Plant Molecular Biology 10.1007/s11103-023-01376-y
Brown, K, Takawira, LT, O'Neill, MM, Mizrachi, E, Myburg, AA, Hussey, SG. (2019) Identification and functional evaluation of accessible chromatin associated with wood formation in Eucalyptus grandis. New Phytologist 10.1111/nph.15897