Alexandra Cox, photo by Zohar Marshall.
Research isn’t always sunshine and fairytales. It can also be demanding, confusing and all sorts of frustrating. In this early career voice post, Bioprotection Aotearoa alumn Alexandra Cox shares how she’s taken the good with the bad in her Phytophthora research and how that has kept her in the game as a PhD candidate at the University of Canterbury.
I study Phytophthora, a group of invasive plant pathogens. Prior to receiving the Bioprotection Aotearoa scholarship that enabled me to learn about this threat to New Zealand’s flora, I had minimal knowledge of Phytophthora – nor its pronunciation or spelling. However, like most kiwis, I had heard of the Irish potato famine and the condition ‘kauri die-back’, both of which are caused by different species in the Phytophthora genus. Knowing that this project which I applied for, admittedly a bit blindly, was studying the genetics of the causative agents of such devastating plant diseases was all the motivation I needed.
Spending so much of my time with such a hard-to-kill pathogen has caused me to develop a love/hate relationship with this fungi-like organism. I love that the samples in my lab can go without food for weeks at a time and are so easy to keep alive, but on the other hand I hate that this rather distressing characteristic contributes to its invasiveness. It is also a complicated organism, with multiple forms or reproduction and varying numbers of chromosomes, something that makes it both promiscuous and petrifying. I’m now halfway through my PhD at the University of Canterbury on the genetics of this destructive invader, and nothing has rung truer to me than the saying “the more you know, the more you know you don’t know”. Despite the constant reminder of the amount of learning I’m yet to do, knowing my published data will hopefully be weaponised against Phytophthora one day helps keeps me going.
I have found describing my research to friends and family almost as challenging as the science itself. Between 1960 and 1970, biologists reclassified Phytophthora from a fungus to an ‘oomycete’, which is also sometimes known as a ‘water mould’. There has been many a time that I wished to be born 50 years earlier when our understanding of Phytophthora was less nuanced. Even when people casually ask me for fun facts, there’s so much to explain. Oomycetes, unlike fungi, lack chitin in their cell walls. They are soil borne microbes that parasitise hosts by invading through roots and growing hyphae into its tissues. Nutrients that are stolen by the spreading hyphae are also prevented from being transported around the plant, resulting in symptoms like wilting, yellowing and death. Figuring out how to summarise my research when describing it to others while staying completely scientifically accurate sometimes seems nearly impossible. When I’m asked what I study, and I don’t have the time to elaborate, I hate to admit I resort to “fungal genetics”.
Alexandra Cox in the lab, photo by Zohar Marshall.
Both when explaining my work to others and when I’m in the more tedious periods of research, it’s hard to love what I do. During these times, I focus on the connection between this obscure-sounding, invisible invader and the tangible consequences of the diseases Phytophthora cause. Reminding myself of my motivation is a more regular occurrence than my undergrad self would’ve imagined. This is because as a typically outdoorsy kiwi, I had envisioned Biology as the science that would allow me to spend the most amount of time in nature. Despite my best intentions, 80% of my working hours are at a computer and the other 20% are in the lab, mostly looking down a microscope. When I find myself hating the time spent inside, I remind myself of my strong belief that any benchtop discovery that could contribute to the development of countermeasures against such an elusive and cryptic pathogen is worth it. Plus, I almost forget about the lack of field work involved with my project when thinking on how much I’ve loved the events, workshops and conferences that I have been invited to attend.
The love I have for this research is magnified by the community I have found. The opportunities offered to me as a Bioprotection Aotearoa scholarship recipient benefitted me in ways well beyond covering the financial cost of my Master’s degree. The most important benefit was in the form of other the early career researchers I networked with and made friends with. During postgraduate study, it is easy to lose enthusiasm if you are isolated. Taking a step back, reminding yourself of the bigger picture and connecting with those who are also trying to benefit society through science are some of the biggest sources of inspiration you can find. Spending all your working hours trying to solve a problem, or ‘beating an enemy’, can feel defeating until you remember you’re not alone in this fight and that human collaboration has brought about bigger wins.
More Information
Learn more about Alexandra’s research here > Insight into the effectomes of Aotearoa Phytophthora cinnamomi isolates by comparative genomics
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