Greetings from Canada!
Canada equals snow, maple syrup, ice hockey and plant virology!
I'm hailing from London in Southern Ontario where I'm almost halfway through of a four-month research visit to Agriculture and Agri Food Canada. I'm here to learn the ropes of the Arabidopsis thaliana-Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) pathosystem which we ultimately hope to set up at our home lab in Helsinki. Establishing the Arabidopsis-TuMV system would be an important addition to our current work with the related potyvirus Potato virus A.
We started collaboration with my host Dr. Aiming Wang and his group through Kristiina's current Academy of Finland project on the translational regulation of potyvirus infections. So far I have had excellent opportunities to meet smart and motivated scientists, learn valuable new skills and to enjoy many novel challenges and experiences in an international environment.
After arriving in the dead of winter at the beginning of an exceptionally cold January 2018 I have been screening Arabidopsis thaliana T-DNA insertion mutant lines for homozygous plants. Soon we will be able to collect seeds from homozygous individuals and to plant a new generation which will be used in TuMV infection experiments to gauge the effects of the mutations on the regulation of viral protein production. I am excited about the progress but at the same time I'm aware that my time here is limited.
So there's plenty of work to do still, but hopefully spring will be here soon so that there will be less shoveling of snow after work ;)
Cheers from London,
Maija
PS. on a Sunday walk in the neighborhood I ran across a shy urban raccoon, a very exotic encounter for a Finn!