PhD student
I am currently a Doctoral candidate (Genetics) within the Hans Merensky Avocado Research Programme, under the supervision of Dr. Velushka Swart and Professor Noëlani van den Berg.
I completed my Bachelors degree in Biotechnology at the University of Pretoria in 2019. I joined the Hans Merensky Avocado Research Programme for my Honours (Genetics) degree in 2020, where I identified and validated crinkling and necrosis (CRNs) genes from the Phytophthora cinnamomi transcriptome during avocado infection.
I subsequently went on to receive my Master's degree with distinction in Genetics in 2023, as a member of the same research group. My dissertation was entitled ‘Identification and expression analysis of Phytophthora cinnamomi CRN effector genes during infection of Persea americana (Mill.)’. This research was a continuation of my honours work, where I molecularly characterised P. cinnamomi CRNs and assigned putative roles in cell death manipulation. This was achieved through analysis of CRN expression during the biotrophic and necrotrophic stages of avocado infection, sequencing of the CRN coding sequences, phylogenetic analyses, and protein modelling. This research highlighted numerous CRN candidates with putative roles as cell death inducers or suppressors. Additionally, the presence of alleles was found for many CRN genes, potentially resulting in varying roles of cell death between the encoded proteins. This allowed for a road to be paved for further research into these important molecular weapons utilised by P. cinnamomi.
Currently, I am working on my PhD. I intend to continue with my work in understanding the roles P. cinnamomi CRN genes play in cell death manipulation during avocado infection, as well as the underlining plant-pathogen interactions taking place.
Midgley KA., van den Berg N., Boevink P., Swart V. Cracking the code on Phytophthora cinnamomi CRN effectors and their role in plant cell death. Poster presentation at the 2025 International Society of Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions Congress; 13-17 July 2025, Cologne, Germany.
Midgley KA., van den Berg N., Backer R., Swart V.Identification of Phytophthora cinnamomi CRNeffectors: Foot soldiers of Phytophthora RootRot. Poster presentation at the 12th InternationalCongress of Plant Pathology; 20-25 August 2023,Lyon, France.
Midgley KA, van den Berg N, Swart V. Phytophthora cinnamomiCRN effectors and their roles in manipulating cell death to maintain their hemi-biotrophic life-style. Presentation presented at the 52nd Congress of the South African Society for Plant Pathology; 2022 August 1-3; Pretoria, South Africa.
Midgley KA, Backer R, Swart V & Van den Berg N. Characterising the role of Phytophthora cinnamomi CRN effectors in host plant cell death. South African Society for Bioinformatics –South Africa Genetics Society; 2021 September 2021.
The Southern African Society for Plant Pathology (SASPP)
The British Society for Plant Pathology (BSPP)
Received a scholarship on behalf of the French Phytopathological Society & The International Society for Plant Pathology, to attend the 12th annual International Congress of Plant Pathology (ICPP2023) in Lyon, France.Acknowledged as one of the top five student presenters at the 52nd Congress of the South African Society of Plant Pathology (SASPP2022).Awarded the Grace Waterhouse Fellowship by the British Society for Plant Pathology (BSPP) to fund a research visit to The James Hutton Institute in 2025.
Midgley KA, van den Berg N, Swart V. (2024) Identification of Phytophthora cinnamomi CRN effectors and their roles in manipulating cell death during Persea americana infection. BMC Genomics 10.1186/s12864-024-10358-3
Midgley KA, van den Berg N, Swart V. (2022) Unraveling plant cell death during Phytophthora Infection. Microorganisms 10.3390/microorganisms10061139