The USDA-ARS Crop Improvement and Protection Research group stationed in Salinas, CA reported recent presentations to growers and industry.
On Thursday December 7, 2017, Dr. Jim McCreight presented “Melon powdery mildew race variation in California” at the Imperial County 28th Annual Fall Desert Crops Workshop hosted by Cooperative Extension and the University of California.
On Thursday, January 4, Dr. Bill Wintermantel presented “Evaluations of RNAi Strategies for Reducing Whitefly Populations on Melons” and Dr. Jim McCreight presented “Evaluation and Breeding of New Sources of Host Plant Resistance to Sweet Potato Whitefly Biotype B.” at the California Melon Research Board Annual Research Symposium in San Diego.
On January 13–17, 2018 Drs. Kaori Ando, Bill Wintermantel and Jim McCreight will present “Phylogenetic analysis of an orphan melon, Cucumis melo ssp. agrestis var. texanus via genotyping-by-sequence.” at the Plant and Animal Genome XXVI in San Diego, California.
Cucurbit Powdery Mildew Consulting in 2017 and February 2018
Dr. Jim McCreight provided expertise on cucurbit powdery mildew (CPM) races and melon host differentials to the International Seed Federation (ISF) Pathology Working Group (sub-Working Group for CPM on Melon) and the Collaboration for Plant Pathogen Strain Identification (CPPSI), University of California, Davis. Three international video conferences with ISF and CPPSI in 2017 related to a European project funded by the French Ministry of Agriculture and several international seed companies to characterize powdery mildew variation in France, Spain, Italy, Turkey and Morocco. Dr. McCreight will travel to The Netherlands to participate in an ISF and CPPSI meeting February 13 and 14 that will further refine a set of melon CPM race differentials for the EU and international CPM communities.
