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Piotr Tuczapski

Graduate Student
Lab:
3503 Miller Plant Sciences
Office:
3507 Miller Plant Sciences
Research Areas:
Research Interests:

My research interests comprise fields of Molecular Ecology, Phylogenetics, and Population Genetics. It is known that orchids rely on mycorrhizal fungi for growth, especially at the early stage of life, i.e. seed germination. However, how specific is this interaction? Do different orchids have different sets of fungal partners? Is it possible that related orchids partner with distinct fungal communities? Finally, could it allow orchids to co-occur? In my dissertation research I am interested in mycorrhizal associations of the sympatric epiphytic miniature orchids of genus Lepanthes in Costa Rica. More precisely, my work involves estimating specificity of orchid-fungal interaction and its potential role in orchid co-occurrence and niche partitioning.

Grants:

2022 American Orchid Society Research Grant

2022 Bill Dahl Graduate Student Research Award, Botanical Society of America

2020 Tinker Foundation - Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute Graduate Field Research Award

2019 Haines Family Botany Award awarded by the Graduate Studies Committee

2018 Palfrey Student Research Grant awarded by the Graduate Studies Committee

2012 British Ecological Society travel grant for Tropical Biology Association field course in Tanzania

Education:

2017 Admission to the PhD Program in Plant Biology Department at the University of Georgia

2014 M.S. Biotechnology, Warsaw University, Warsaw. MISMaP Department (Interdisplinary Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences).

M.S. thesis research: Analysis of time impact on the quantity of preserved ancient DNA with use of real-time quantitative PCR.

2011 B.S. Biotechnology, Warsaw University, Warsaw. MISMaP Department (Inter-faculty Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences).

B.S. thesis research: Analysis of Roe Deer (Capreolus sp.) ancient mitochondrial DNA from Crimea, Ukraine.

Articles Featuring Piotr Tuczapski

Congratulations to Piotr Tuczapski (Trapnell lab) for receiving two grants, one from the American Orchid Society and the second the Bill Dahl Graduate Student Research Award from the Botanical Society of America. Piotr received these awards to fund a project…

Major Professor


Dorset W. Trapnell

Associate Professor and Undergraduate Coordinator

Committee Members


Y. Anny Chung

Haines Family Assistant Professor of Plant Ecology

External Committee

Dr. Melissa McCormick Principal Investigator at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Dr. Travis Glenn Associate Professor of Environmental Health Science at UGA

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