First Impressions

Friends, family, and colleagues,

We spent the majority of today doing some local travel in Nanjing. The jetlag isn't too bad, though I have been waking up 4:00 and 5:00am.

Below I'll be discussing some first impressions I've made of the nation as a whole and some cultural similarities and differences.

Security
Security is taken very seriously in the People's Republic of China. Not only is it strict, security is also overt. They make no effort to hide the security folks at the airport, bank, or cities. All of the security is uniformed, and highly visible. Police and security drive around with their lights on all the time, which is different from the US, where police only turn on their lights in emergencies or to pull you over. In one regard it's nice, because you always know where to find someone if you need help.
Firearms are heavily regulated here, and only the military and police are allowed to use them. However, for every armed security guard, there are two to three unarmed security guards.

There are cameras everywhere. When we were driving to Nanjing from Shanghai, cameras were set to take photos periodically on the highways. Additionally, when we exchanged currency this afternoon, I counted 5 cameras panning out into the lobby, plus one at each of the teller's desk.

First night out

Our first night out, we went to eat at a cafe and one interesting facet was that there were smoking and nonsmoking sections. I haven't seen that sort or thing since I was a child. Most states in the US have banned indoor smoking, citing health concerns. Smoking is very common in most public areas and is only banned in a few areas.

Hospitality is very important to the Chinese. The people have been very welcoming, especially our hosts. Very rarely, is my tea cup less than half empty. The amount of food at lunch and dinner is more than enough for everyone. The food here is amazing! There hasn't been a meal yet where I haven't had plenty of good food to eat. 

Laboratory meeting

We had dinner last night in a private room with some of the lab members. The lab here consists of seven researchers, so it's comparable to a lab at UF. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming. The strange thing about their institute is that they have very few graduate students. Remember, that this is an academy and not a traditional university. Most of the work is done by post-doc level researchers. Our contact works on breeding for resistance for gummy stem blight on melon in addition to powdery mildew. Their tenure system is also a bit different, being more permanent than in the US. Collaboration is not highly encouraged as it is in the US, which I can't imagine having to do everything without the help of a collaborator. 

First impressions

The Chinese are very welcoming, and have been very helpful to our project. Security is very tight, but given that I'm here for a specific purpose, it doesn't feel oppressive. If you're a smoker, you're free to smoke in restaurants, bars, and parks. 

I think my next post will be about all the good food I've eaten and some dietary habits of the Chinese.

Mason

Update: Side Project

I mentioned that we've already added a side project to this endeavor. Yesterday, Dr. Li told us that she has several isolates that have been tagged with a gene that makes them fluoresce (known as green fluorescent protein GFP), which is very exciting, since there are a lot of restrictions in the US on using GFP tagged pathogens. Here, GFP tagged isolates can be inoculated in a field or in the greenhouse, whereas in the US it has to be confined to a special lab where you can destroy the pathogen once it's done. It doesn't make the pathogen any more virulent, rather it actually makes it less fit in the environment. But, when you start talking about a genetically modified pathogen, the public wants restrictions. This technology could allow us to look into a seed and tell whether or not the pathogen is on the seed coat or internalized, where infection occurs, or even how it moves within a field or greenhouse.

We're hopefully going to do a side project where we look at the major routes of entry for Didymella bryoniae into the seed of melon. It will be preliminary data, but it may turn into something bigger.Needless to say, my advisor is very excited; to which I must remind him, I only want one PhD!

Traveling halfway around the world

Friends, family, and colleagues,

We arrived safely yesterday evening to Shanghai-Pudong International Airport at 5:10 pm local time. There is a 12 hour time difference, in which we are 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. I wished my mother a happy mother's day this morning only to be informed it was still Saturday back in the US. Oh well, better to be early than late, right?

Overview of the JourneyThe journey started out Friday morning by getting on a plane in Gainesville at 7:40 am that flew to Atlanta. From there, I met up with my advisor, Dr. Mathews Paret at the terminal. We had a 5 hour flight to Seattle which was uneventful. We landed at 12:00 local time (3:00 pm EST) and grabbed a late lunch. There was a 2 hour layover, which was used to charge devices, catch up on email. We boarded the plane around 2:00 pm local time and we had a flight time of about 12 hours. However, traversing 9 time zones, we hardly lost any daylight. Both Dr. Paret and I tried to sleep on the plane to mitigate the jetlag with limited success. We landed in Shanghai-Pudong International Airport at 5:10 pm local time (my body still thinks it's 5:10 am at this point). 

Windmills could be seen out the window in Shanghai. 

Customs and Immigration
We cleared immigration with no problems. Both our visas were in order. The process itself was very streamlined. We cleared customs with a few problems. They wanted to quarantine the seeds we brought for 7 days, which we complied with their demands. We expected that something like this could happen, so we had a contingency plan for if it did. We shouldn't need it for another two weeks anyway. We also have seed that we may ship if they aren't released from quarantine. They'll likely screen for any pathogens, which, with such a small number of seeds, it's doubtful they'll find anything. (Gotta love that Type II error, right epidemiology friends?). 

Travel by car to Nanjing We were picked up by our contact, Dr. Pingfang Li and her driver. We then proceeded to drive an additional four hours from Shanghai to Nanjing. There were a lot of buildings and cranes in Shanghai itself. We also passed a countless number of trucks which were hauling anything and everything. There is a lot of growth and development in both Shanghai and Nanjing.

We got in around 10:00 pm local time. We checked in, settled down and ate a (very) late dinner. Our bodies were ready for an early lunch, so we didn't notice anything amiss. We are scheduled to do some touring today after lunch. I'm hoping that my next post will be on first impressions and social/cultural differences between my home and China.

Mason

P.S. I need a sign-off phrase or some catchphrase for the end of these. If you have a good one, leave it in the comment section! As always, preferential consideration will be given to puns. 

Introduction

Introduction

Friends, family, and colleagues,

As many of you know, I'll be spending the majority of summer 2015 in China for my PhD research. One of the biggest questions I get is “So what will you be doing over there?” We have been fortunate enough to find collaborators at a breeding institute in the Jiangsu province. The institute is located in the heart of Nanjing, a major city located in eastern coast of the country, about 4 hours from Shanghai.

I'm in the Jiangsu province located on the east side of the country (pink). Courtesy: http://www.beijingrelocation.com/blog/map-of-chinas-provinces/

The academy is known as the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Science (JAAS) which was founded in 1932. Within that academy, we are working with the institute of vegetable crops. Within the institute, we are working with the cucurbit breeding research group. While the group is primarily focused on breeding, they have agreed to support us through a collaboration. The purpose of the trip is primarily academic, we hope to complete four things while we are here (this is the really boring technical stuff, feel free to skip it unless you are a huge nerd and actually like this stuff).

 

This is the logo for the academy where I'll be working

1.     Single-spore the isolates: With any isolate of the fungi, we need to ensure that we’re working with one isolate and not a mixture of two or more. So, this first thing we do is we get every culture to be produced from one spore. That way, we know that we are truly dealing with one isolate.

2.     Pathogenicity testing: Just as there is diversity in any other population, we are seeking to characterize how pathogenic these strains are. We do this by inoculating a plant with the spores and observe how quickly disease develops.

3.     Fungicide sensitivity: A lot of the fungicides registered in China are also registered in the US. We need to get an idea of how effective they are in China compared to the US.

4.     DNA extraction: Federal law requires that I get a lot of permits to bring back live isolates. However, they have much fewer restrictions on DNA (the genetic material in all the cells). With the DNA, we can look at the population structure, fungicide sensitivity, and pathogenicity as well.

 

This is the fungus I study. It may look harmless, but it's a ruthless watermelon killer!

Below are some frequently asked questions I have received leading up to the trip.

So why China?

We chose to come to China for a variety of reasons. First, we have a collaboration already set-up, so that makes it very easy. Second, China produces nearly 20% of all the watermelon seed imported into the US. The fungus I work on is seed-borne, meaning that it can survive in/on the seed and can travel long distances as a result.

We suspect that isolates from China are coming to the US via seed and may already have resistance to fungicides before growers in the US can manage them. We hope that during this trip, we can find evidence either supporting or refuting this hypothesis.

How long will you be in China?

I arrived in China on May 9^th, 2015 and will be here until July 20^th 2015, so about 2 months.

Will you be able to travel while you’re in China?

We will see. I have a lot of work to do and that is my priority. There is a lot of history in Nanjing itself, so even if I’m only able to travel locally, I’ll still be able to see a lot within the region.

So what is it you do again?

I’m a student looking at a fungal disease on watermelon that is a major problem in both the US and China. The fungus is called Didymella bryoniae which causes the disease gummy stem blight. You can learn more about the fungus here and more about the disease and its management here.

I'll try to post often. Feel free to comment with any questions.

Mason