{"id":370,"date":"2020-09-04T13:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T01:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/?p=370"},"modified":"2020-09-03T12:12:59","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T00:12:59","slug":"when-conservation-and-combat-collide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/when-conservation-and-combat-collide\/","title":{"rendered":"When Conservation and Combat Collide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A coin toss at the end of Josh Gilligan\u2019s first year at Otago could, via an intriguing series of steps, help conserve a kaleidoscope of our native plants and insects.<\/p>\n

And like any good story, this one\u2019s full of unexpected twists and turns.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s begin at the end – of Josh\u2019s first year studying biology – when the decision to take genetics in second year came down to a simple toss of the coin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went to the first genetics lab and the lecturer said \u2018we\u2019re now going to mutate some bacteria\u2019, I was immediately hooked,\u201d<\/em> Josh says. \u201cI just fell in love with every weird aspect of it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Fast forward a few years, and Josh was \u201cthinking of genes as Lego building blocks to work out how a protein functioned\u201d<\/em> during a summer studentship in synthetic biology. Next, it was Honours, looking at enzymes in glycolysis (the metabolic pathway where glucose is converted into energy).<\/p>\n

\u201cI found it exciting and engaging,\u201d<\/em> he says. \u201cIt gave me the drive to keep going, even when experiments failed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

At the same time, Josh was training hard for his black belt in Taekwondo: \u201cIf you\u2019re spending your whole day thinking, then it\u2019s nice to blow off steam.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Though in this case, \u2018nice\u2019 meant \u201cfighting people for an hour straight\u201d<\/em>, followed by breaking boards \u201cuntil nothing\u2019s left in the tank\u201d.<\/em> And if martial arts sounds miles away from the genetics lab, Josh reckons there\u2019s lots in common.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelf-control, integrity, perseverance – and once you\u2019ve fought 60 people in a row, a PCR [polymerase chain reaction] failing is no big deal.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Josh holding a ‘pseudo-nest’ that they use to keep the wasps in captivity. Photo Credit Gemma McLaughlin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With his black belt safely (ahem) under his belt, Josh next became an assistant research fellow, whose initial job was tracking down pollen sources in samples of honey. This led to work in a project looking at molecular ways to knock out the genes of invasive vespula wasps, then eventually to another pest species, the European paper wasp.
\nUnlike vespula wasps, which can be controlled with poisoned bait, paper wasps \u201cprefer live insects\u201d<\/em>. Unfortunately, Josh explains, in New Zealand, this means these wasps \u201ckilling and eating our native butterflies and moths\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the paper wasp is spreading southward through the country, this is bad news for much more than tasty native insects. \u201cNew Zealand\u2019s ecosystem evolved with native pollinators, including our butterflies and moths,\u201d<\/em> Josh says – and if the pollinators go, then that threatens our native plants as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to look at techniques to get rid of these wasps before they become a major issue,\u201d<\/em> Josh says. It\u2019s a motivation that\u2019s led to his proposed PhD: \u201cHow can I do that in a way that only affects wasps in New Zealand?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His initial idea is \u201cto try find genetic variants that are only found in New Zealand populations\u201d.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

And while this will take much more than simply tossing a coin, the determination and dedication that have got Josh this far will undoubtedly see him right.<\/p>\n

(Did you know: The collective name for wasps is a \u2018nest\u2019 or \u2018swarm\u2019; for butterflies it\u2019s a \u2018kaleidoscope\u2019 – and for moths it\u2019s a \u2018whisper\u2019.)<\/p>\n

Written by Mick Whittle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A coin toss at the end of Josh Gilligan\u2019s first year at Otago could, via an intriguing series of steps, help conserve a kaleidoscope of our native plants and insects. And like any good story, this one\u2019s full of unexpected twists and turns. So let\u2019s begin at the end – of Josh\u2019s first year studying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37560,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37560"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}