CucCAP melon breeders, industry representatives and other participants interested in Powdery Mildew replicated trials & natural infection and a Core set of means for trains assays, joined Dr. Jim McCreight at the University of California Desert Research and Extension Center on June 7, 2018 for a Melon Field Day.
The group looked for Powdery Mildew on 47 melon entries, including the “standards,” candidate accessions, and the 21-line triple septet set proposed by Lebeda et al.* They also observed the core collection including ca. 384 melon cultigens tentatively selected to represent the genetic variation in the larger set of 2000+ USDA, GRIN accessions and ‘heirloom’ lines. More details about the Melon Core Collection can be found in the 2017 CucCAP annual report.
*The following documents provide more information:
- Cucurbit powdery mildews: methodology for objective determination and denomination of races. European Journal of Plant Pathology
- Initiative for international cooperation of researchers and breeders related to determination and denomination of cucurbit powdery mildew races Cucurbitaceae 2016, XIth Eucarpia Meeting on Genetics and Breeding of Cucurbitaceae, Warsaw, Poland.
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- USDA-ARS scientists and seed company representatives visit melon plots.
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- Field day participants discuss powdery mildew resistance in melon.
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- “There is powdery mildew in here…”
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- USDA-ARS scientists and industry representatives take notes in the melon field.
