Kaitlin J. Fisher

An evolved strain of Spathaspora passalidarum produces ethanol from sugarcane bagasse and switchgrass lignocellulosic hydrolysates

This study evolved Spathaspora passalidarum to produce ethanol from lignocellulosic hydrolysates by improving tolerance to inhibitors like acetic acid.

Unique trajectory of gene family evolution from genomic analysis of nearly all known species in an ancient yeast lineage

The paper analyzes gene family evolution across nearly all known Saccharomycotina yeast species, finding distinct evolutionary patterns with gene loss linked to metabolic and genomic changes.

Genomic factors shaping codon usage across the Saccharomycotina subphylum

The paper analyzes codon usage patterns across 1,154 Saccharomycotina strains, identifying biases, correlations with GC content and tRNA-ome size, and order-specific classification using machine learning.

An adaptive interaction between cell type and metabolism drives ploidy evolution in a wild yeast

The paper shows that ploidy reduction in yeast populations evolved for maltose utilization is driven by an interaction between cell type and metabolism, with haploid-like transcriptional programs conferring fitness advantages.

Synthetic hybrids of six yeast species

The paper constructs six-species synthetic yeast hybrids and shows they are chromosomally unstable but can rapidly adapt to novel environments.