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Karl Persson

Researcher

Department of Biological & Environmental Sciences
Mail
karl.persson@bioenv.gu.se
Visiting address
Medicinaregatan 7 B
41390 Göteborg
Postal address
Box 463
40530 Göteborg

About Karl Persson

My research focuses on yeasts, from their evolutionary history to their potential to contribute to more sustainable agriculture. I am particularly interested in how microbial biodiversity can be translated into practical solutions.

I received my PhD from the University of Gothenburg in 2022 with a thesis on evolution and evolvability in the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. During my doctoral studies, I investigated how genetic changes shape adaptation over short and long evolutionary timescales, in close collaboration with international research groups in evolutionary genomics. This work provided me with extensive experience in experimental evolution, high-throughput phenotyping, and genomics.

Toward the end of my PhD, I became involved in a side project together with researchers from Nigeria who were working with a large collection of wild yeast isolates. This project marked a turning point. Moving from a well-studied model organism to a diverse range of non-conventional yeasts opened a new research direction for me: bioprospecting and functional characterization of natural yeast biodiversity.

As a postdoctoral researcher at Chalmers University of Technology, I continued working with non-model yeasts and their metabolic and biotechnological potential. In parallel, we initiated a citizen science project in which more than one hundred Swedish beekeepers contributed honey samples. The result was a unique collection of approximately 2,500 yeast isolates from Swedish honey, a resource that now forms the foundation of my current research.

Today, I am a researcher at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences (BioEnv), University of Gothenburg, where I lead the Formas-funded project BioHive. The project investigates how yeasts that naturally occur in the beehive can be used for biological control of honeybee pathogens. By combining microbial ecology, genomics, and experimental biology, we develop sustainable alternatives to antibiotics and chemical treatments in apiculture. The overall aim is to improve honeybee health while contributing to a more sustainable and resilient food system.

Read more about previous projects and interviews: