Vegetable Breeding, Genetics & Genomics: July 2015

Jul 17, 2015

Phyllicia Thomas wins 1st prize!

Phyllicia Thomas won 1st prize for her oral presentation in the CAES Young Scholars Internship Program (Athens). The title of her research was "Detection of mutations in a candidate gene associated with bi-sexual flowers in watermelon"

Here is Phyllica with her proud parents and mentor.

Phyllicia hard at work in the lab.

Congratulations to Phyllicia for her outstanding work on this project!

About the Lab

Our research program focuses on developing molecular tools for watermelon and integrating these tools into our breeding program. Thus we strive to bridge the gap between basic genomic research and applied cultivar development.

Our current research projects endeavor to identify loci and genes associated with important fruit, seed, flower and disease resistance traits in watermelon.

Participants in our research group gain experience in field, greenhouse and laboratory research as well as genomic analysis and bioinformatics. The majority of research is carried out by graduate and undergraduate students, as well as high school students through the Young Scholars Internship Program.