The USDA has identified vegetable crops as challenged specialty crops. Cucurbits are important cash crops in the United States. The profitable and sustainable production of cucurbits is severely impacted by the destructive soilborne disease, Phytophthora blight.
CucCAP Project
Contributions to the CucCAP project by the Bioinformatics Team, Cucurbit Crop Breeding Teams, and the Integrated Disease Management Team.
CucCAP scientists uncover genetic factors influencing flowering time and fruit yield in watermelon
Scientists at the USDA, ARS, U.S. Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, SC evaluated the USDA, ARS citron watermelon germplasm collection for flowering time and fruit yield traits under field conditions over two years. They used a “genome-wide association study (GWAS)” to detect genomic regions and molecular (DNA) markers associated with flowering time and fruit yield traits. The new molecular markers will be useful in improving watermelon varieties for early flowering and maturity and yield performance via marker-assisted breeding.
Cucumber Disease Survey 2023
CucCAP Agricultural and Resource Economics Extension Specialist Dr. Daniel Tregeagle invites commercial cucumber growers to participate in this 30 minute survey.
Early Career Scientist Spotlight | Kelly Avila
Kelly Avila is a Post Doctoral Researcher and works with CucCAP Plant Pathologist Dr. Lina Quesada in the Vegetable Pathology Lab at NC State University. She chose to work in the Quasada lab because of the focus on Extension, integrated disease management, and genomics.
CucCAP scientists evaluate disease forecasting models for downy mildew control in cucumber
Cucurbit downy mildew is a major threat for pickling cucumber production requiring frequent fungicide applications.
Disease Survey for Cucumber growers
You are invited to take part in a research study. Your participation in this study is voluntary. You have the right to be a part of this study, to choose not to participate, and to stop participating at any time without penalty. The purpose of this research study is to gain a better understanding of grower’s opinions on cucumber varieties.
Early Career Scientist Spotlight | Gregory Inzinna
Gregory Inzinna hopes to identify resistance genes in Cucurbita and provide the seed and vegetable industry with resistant breeding lines and markers they can use in their work.
Early Career Scientist Spotlight | Xuebo Zhao
Xuebo Zhao is a postdoctoral researcher in the Fei Lab at Boyce Thompson Institute. The focus of Xuebo’s work is genomics. Her research is to unravel the evolution of Cucurbits using pan-genome.
