Dr. Chin-Feng Hwang, professor at the State Fruit Experiment Station within the Darr School of Agriculture, and three students, Surya Sapkota, an MSU/University of Missouri collaborative Ph.D. student, Daniel Adams and Jacob Schneider, both plant science master’s students, attended the 41st annual conference of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV) Eastern Section July 19-20 in St. Louis, Missouri.
Two of the students presented posters on their research and participated in a flash talk, or a quick, three-minute presentation on their research. Adams won the “Best Poster” award in the Viticulture category.
- Sapkota presented a poster titled “Construction of High Density Linkage Maps and Detection of Downy Mildew Resistance Locus in Vitis aestivalis-derived ‘Norton’ Population”
- Adams presented a poster titled “Genetic Analysis of Cold Hardiness in Vitis aestivalis–derived ‘Norton’ Grape”
Hwang was invited to present a talk titled “Molecular Genetic Approaches to Norton Grape Improvement.”
The conference was an opportunity for students to interact with other researchers in the field and learn about the progress being made in other areas of research.
“Low temperature injury is the primary limiting factor to grape production in the north temperate viticulture regions around the world,” added Hwang. “Cold hardiness is commonly measured, but at the same time, one of the most poorly understood traits in grapevine. I am very grateful that our students represented MSU so well at the conference.”
The overall goals of the MSU grape breeding program are to use genetic markers to rapidly deploy favorable alleles, accelerate breeding cycles for new cultivar release and train students in molecular genetic and genomic techniques required for their future careers.
For more information on the conference, go online or contact Hwang at 417-547-7538.