[1] Her research included work on ectrotrophic mycorrhiza and fungal diseases of the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) and beet (Beta sp).

[2] In 1942, Zerova defended a dissertation in mycology entitled Pleomorphism of some ascomycetes about the ontogenetic relationships of Ascomycota to the fungi imperfecti.

In 1969, she was awarded a higher Doctor of Sciences degree for a thesis on the Study of the microflora of the USSR and mycorrhiza of the steppe part of Ukraine.

[2] She moved to an Institute for Forest Plantations and researched plant pathology and also how mycology could improve the establishment of trees and shrubs in landscaped urban areas.

[3][4] In 1942 Zerova joined the MG Kholodny Institute of Botany of the USSR Academy of Sciences and remained there for the rest of her career.

These cultivation strategies were considered more important after the realisation that wild fungal fruiting bodies could accumulate heavy metals and radioactive isotopes from the soil.

She was one of the authors of the Determination of mushrooms of Ukraine (Визначник грибів України), that was published in five volumes in seven books between 1967 and 1979, although work on it started in 1946.