Team photo of the PSA Research team. Image caption: From left to right: Erin Stroud, Matt Templeton, Lauren Hemara, Jay Jayaraman, Shin-Mei Yeh, Hanareia Ehau-Taumaunu, Jibran Tahir. Image credit: Ben Lawrence (Plant & Food Research).
From human fungal infections to a world-class biosecurity response, Associate Professor Matt Templeton has become a treasured member of the research community in Aotearoa New Zealand. Now, as he starts to consider what’s next, we look at some career highlights and what he wants to pass on to the next generation.
Late on a Friday afternoon in November 2010, a Plant & Food Research technician was handed some kiwifruit leaves with suspicious spots and asked to test for ‘Psa’ (Pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae), a bacterial disease that was infamous in the industry.
The disease had cost Italy millions of Euros in an outbreak a couple years prior, and there were reports from Japan of the ‘kiwifruit canker’ becoming resistant to the common copper treatment.
The test was positive.
What followed was an “emergency” and eventually award-winning response by more than 100 Plant & Food Research scientists to save the billion-dollar industry.
In the thick of it all was plant pathologist Associate Professor Matt Templeton.
“It was worrying . . . there was a lot of apprehension because we knew how big it could potentially be,” Matt says.
“We were all hoping that A) it might be a false positive, and B) maybe Psa wouldn’t be as virulent here. As you well know that all turned out to be wrong.”
At the time Matt was already a well-established researcher in the field of plant pathogens and their hosts, and was coincidentally part of a team who had just developed an assay to detect Psa.
He was quickly moved onto the response team and started sequencing the genome of the bacterium responsible for the outbreak. They were looking for effector proteins – molecules that help overcome plant defenses. Was there one that was unique to Psa that made it so virulent?
In addition, orchardists needed a quick diagnostic test to be able to tell the virulent strain of Psa from the other, more benign strains also present on their vines.
“That was a very stressful time for growers. I remember giving a talk to orchardists sometime in 2011 when really, we didn’t have any immediate answers. I could just see the look on everyone’s faces. They weren’t angry at us, but they were frustrated, and you could tell there was a lot of uncertainty and worry.”
The experience working with people on the ground changed Matt’s outlook as a researcher: saying he became “much more attuned to what’s needed at the orchard level” than he was previously.
A “good little biochemical project”
Matt didn’t exactly dream of plant pathogens as a child. He was initially drawn to health sciences at university, but after doing an Honours project on Candida albicans (the cause of common fungal infections in people) he started looking around for something a little less . . . itchy.
“I was interested in quite a specific PhD topic,” he says, “and most of the people working on Candida had been given much more ‘bigger picture’ ones.
“But one of my supervisors had a colleague who was a chemist – he was interested in toxins produced by plant pathogens and wanted to know how this toxin was working . . . he mentioned it to my supervisor, who passed the idea on to me. It seemed like a good little biochemical project.”
As fate would have it the Plant Diseases Division of DSIR (Department of Scientific and Industrial Research) then went on a hiring spree at just the right time.
Matt says “Employment is based a lot more on luck than graduates care to realise . . . they just happened to have a whole lot of job vacancies when I finished my PhD, and I guess I grew into the topic.
“If those jobs hadn’t come free, I would have a completely different career, I think.”
Matt has now been at Plant & Food Research (and its predecessor DSIR) for over 40 years, and says he’s never lost interest in understanding how microbes cause disease in plants.
Associate Professor Matt Templeton (right) with Director of Bioprotection Aotearoa, Professor Amanda Black (left).
Focusing on getting results
Bioprotection Aotearoa (and the Bio-Protection Research Centre before that) has been proud to have Matt as a team member – supervising postdocs and many aligned students to add to the body of knowledge about Psa.
He says “Soon after Psa broke out I actually had postdoc funding through the Bio-Protection Research Centre (BPRC) for Carl Mesarich. Subsequently he was employed by Massey University and I’ve been working pretty much continually on Psa ever since.”
“I’ve been given a lot of independence with Bioprotection Aotearoa, which I’m really grateful for. I think they’re very trusting, which allows their theme leaders, or pou leaders, just to get on and do stuff. It’s really helpful – it’s let me focus on getting results, getting publications.”
As a core focus of Bioprotection Aotearoa, established researchers educate and mentor emerging scientists and help them create the start of a flourishing career.
As far as words of wisdom go for those early career researchers, Matt says you can’t go past passion.
“Follow your passion, that would be my advice . . . because a science career can be a challenging one, getting funding and continual employment. I think you’ve got to be really passionate about it.
“If you’re not, it’s not worth putting up with the difficulties that may or may not occur. And I think there is always an element of luck getting permanent employment.”
Looking forward
While the ‘R’ word doesn’t seem to be on the cards in the immediate future, Matt says he is looking at reducing his hours.
“I’ve really prepared myself poorly for retirement,” he says, “but I’m not a believer in hanging on to your job till the bitter end, if you know what I mean, because that just holds up younger people.”
Matt currently teaches plant pathology one day a week at the University of Auckland, and says he’d like to come back in an Honorary or Emeritus position after he finishes full-time work.
Regardless of the shape the next few years takes, the mark Matt has made on the plant pathogen and kiwifruit spaces in Aotearoa New Zealand is unmistakable. We’re thankful to have had him in our waka and wish him the best for his next chapter.
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