Weekly Screening

Over the past few months, lab workers have been assisting graduate students with frequent screenings. This process includes infecting plants with pathogens in order to see which plants are more susceptible to disease and which are more resistant. Screenings are conducted in a controlled humidity chamber in order accelerate the growth process of the gummy stem blight.

Fusarium Incoculum (Disease Screening Preparation)

(Image above taken in October 2018)

In the lab, we have to do a lot of preparation over a period of time in order to conduct research. The above image shows a quick snapshot of that preparation. These are erlenmeyer flasks filled with fusarium incoculum. This was mixed on the shaker tables for an extended amount of time in order to prepare them for use in disease screenings.

SR-ASHS in Birmingham AL

Graduate students from the lab attended the SR-ASHS and the Watermelon Research Working Group in Birmingham AL this past weekend.
Jorge Reyes won third place in the Warren S. Barham Ph.D Graduate Student Paper Competition for this presentation entitled "Detection of the Gummy Stem Blight-Causing Pathogens (Stagonosporopsis spp.) in Watermelon Using Species-Specific LAMP Assays."
 Winnie Gimode won best overall graduate student poster, for the poster entitled "Fine mapping of a Major Quantitative Trait Locus Qdff3-1 Controlling Flowering Time in Watermelon." Winnie was also voted the 'audience favorite' for the paper presentation entitled "Identification of Quantitative Trait Loci Associated with Gummy Stem Blight Resistance in Watermelon."

Congratulations to Jorge and Winnie!