Researcher Spotlight: Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso

Professor Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso shares her journey into plant science, her fascination with how plant cells communicate, and why the Black in Plant Science network is so important.

Professor Benitez-Alfonso’s research explores how plant cells communicate with each other through microscopic channels called plasmodesmata, helping scientists understand how plants grow, adapt to their environment, and respond to stress. This work has important implications for improving crop resilience and developing new sustainable biomaterials.

View the video transcript.

How would you describe your research in one sentence?

My research is about how plant cells communicate with each other, and what barriers control that communication, so plants can respond more readily to environmental cues.

Tell us about your career story – how did you get into research?

I’m originally from Cuba and grew up in a family of professionals. My father is a surgeon constantly studying the human body. That definitely sparked my interest in biology, but interestingly I didn’t want to work directly with whole organisms. It felt a bit risky to play with something alive. So, I went into chemistry first.

I studied chemistry in Havana and finished my degree in Córdoba, Spain, where I rediscovered biology through biochemistry.

During my PhD I had to teach myself a lot of biology, because I hadn’t taken it as a major. That’s also when I really fell in love with plant biochemistry.

After that I went to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the US, working on plant cell communication, at a time when the field was very unexplored. Then I moved to the John Innes Centre, where I began looking at cell walls and the proteins that control them. Eventually I applied for a lectureship at Leeds, opening doors to start my independent research career.

What first sparked your interest in this field?

I grew up very close to nature. Cuba is full of it. My mum had the green fingers in the family. Every plant I touch still dies! I’m the most unsuccessful plant biologist you can imagine. But I’ve always been fascinated by the molecules and structures that make plants what they are.

My real love for plant biology came during my PhD, working on how olive trees respond to pathogens. I think my interest comes from wanting to understand things fundamentally, and also from respecting animals. I didn’t want to interfere with them at the organism level. Plants gave me a way to explore big biological questions.

How would you describe what you do to someone outside academia?

Plants can’t move, they can’t run, they can’t find shelter. So, they need very fast, very efficient ways to transmit signals through their bodies so they can survive.

A leaf needs to tell the root, “Hey, it’s cold, don’t grow too fast”, or warn the plant about pathogens, or adjust water transpiration during drought.

I study how those messages move across the plant body and what are, the ‘traffic jams’, the things that slow or block communication. Once you see plants like a city with roads and signals, it makes sense.

What are you currently working on?

Thanks to my UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, I’m looking at how the plant cell wall structures changes to speed up or slow down communication through plasmodesmata, the channels between cells. We’re studying how this affects drought responses and fruits growth, like how these routes are regulated for a tomato to become small or large.

At the same time, I use what we learn about cell walls to design sustainable biomaterials from cellulose. We are working with physical sciences colleagues, industry partners and the Bragg Centre here at Leeds to understand how components of the cell wall can make cellulose more elastic or more plastic-like, but still compostable. And we try to extract those components from plant waste, to make the whole process more sustainable.

Who supports and collaborates on your work?

My main support is the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, but I’ve also had BBSRC DTP funding, EPSRC funding, and support from the Leverhulme Trust. Collaboration is a huge part of my work. Our last paper had 18 authors from six institutions.

We collaborate across structural biology with researchers in the Astbury Centre and physical sciences, chemistry, and material sciences with researchers based in Braggs. We also collaborate with industry, and internationally with groups in France, Spain, Germany, the US, and Ireland. Collaboration is essential. It gives credibility and really drives the impact of what we do.

What has surprised or inspired you most?

One moment was attending a talk completely outside my area, about the physical properties of cellulose. It opened my eyes to how much we could learn by stepping outside biology and using physics or computational approaches to test ideas we can’t test directly in the plant.

Another moment was meeting Professor Paul Knox when I arrived in Leeds. He had developed a huge set of antibodies over 30 years to study cell walls. Having access to that resource, and his mentorship, really pushed my research in the direction it’s taken.

How is your research making a difference beyond academia?

One big area is sustainability. We work closely with Futamura, a global cellulose company, using plant waste to create better, more sustainable packaging materials. We’ve developed a platform to predict how different pulps will behave, which helps industry choose the right materials.

Another area is crop improvement. We’re working with strawberry companies, using what we’ve learned from tomatoes to understand how to make strawberries sweeter and more resilient during transport.

And a third area is the Black in Plant Science Network, which I co‑founded. It supports Black researchers with conferences, placements, and community building. It’s not directly my scientific research, but it’s an important impact of being in this field.

What have you learned along the way?

Academic research is often restricted to funding structures and the need for short‑term impact can make it hard to pursue long-term questions. Because of that, I’ve been involved with BBSRC consultations to try to change the funding landscape.

I think we often think academic research and industry research are very different. Now there are more parallels between the two, and increasingly more crossover.

There are industries that are moving more into what is considered academic research. There are funders, like UKRI that are now funding more academic type of research in industry. The boundaries between academia and industry are much closer than they used to be.

What’s next for this work – and for you?

Scientifically, I want to take what we know from model plants and translate it into crops, to make a real difference to food security and climate resilience.

Personally, I see myself pushing more into leadership, especially around supporting ethnic minority researchers. I want to influence the people who can make a difference and inspire young minds, whether they become plant scientists or not.

What advice would you give to someone considering a research career?

If you’re an undergraduate, don’t abandon your dreams. We need young minds with new ideas, especially to tackle climate change and sustainability.

If you’re already in research and thinking about academia, come in with your eyes open. Academic and industry research aren’t as different as they used to be. And remember, in academia you become more of a leader than a doer. You are a leader in directing the next generation that is shaping your area of research, which is also really rewarding. But if your dream is to be in the lab every day, carrying out experiments by yourself, maybe a group leader position is not for you. That’s something to think about.

What does research impact mean to you personally?

Impact is everything, economic, societal, cultural, and personal. I see impact when I teach, when our work supports industry, or even in creative projects like Everyone’s a Seed (funded by DEFRA and organised by Celia Knight Consulting, Fera Science Ltd, and Leeds Trinity University) where poets work with communities to talk about plant health.

We have to think about long-term impact too, not just the short-term wins.

Further information

Visit Yoselin’s staff profile and find out more about some of her recent research projects.

Find out more about Plant Sciences research here at Leeds.