CucCAP scientist Amnon Levi, Linda Wessel Beaver and Todd Wehner are members of the CGC Coordinating Committee. They collaborated with the Cucurbit research community to publish CGC Report 47 for 2024. This report includes the 2024 Watermelon Gene List.
Reddy Lab @ WVSU
Watermelon Team | 2024 Progress Report
View the 2024 Watermelon Report including all tables and figures in pages 20 – 36 of the pdf version of this report.
Watermelon Team members:
Amnon Levi (USDA, ARS)
Sandra Branham (Clemson University)
Shaker Kousik (USDA, ARS)
Kai-Shu Ling (USDA, ARS)
Cecilia McGregor (University of Georgia)
Umesh Reddy (West Virginia St University)
Pat Wechter (Clemson University)
ISHS International Symposium on Cucurbits 2023
CucCAP scientists Zhangjun Fei, Shaker Kousik, Cecilia McGregor, Umesh K. Reddy, and Yiqun Weng are on the Scientific committee of the VII International Symposium on Cucurbits. Their specialties include watermelon, cucumber, and genomics.
Watermelon Team | 2023 Progress Report
CucCAP Squash Team | Research Publications
The CucCAP squash team published 6 journal articles in 2022 & 2023, 7 journal articles in 2021, and 5 journal articles in 2020.
CucCAP Melon Team | Research Publications
The CucCAP Melon breeding, genomics, and pathology group published 11 journal articles and book chapters between September 2020 and April 2023.
PAG 30
CucCAP researchers assemble genomic tools to study the development of giant pumpkin fruit
Cucurbit fruits come in different shapes and sizes, controlled by genes underlying cell size and number. In a recent study, a team at West Virginia State University (WVSU) identified genetic factors underlying the giant fruit size of the mammoth group of Cucurbita maxima. The study elucidated genome diversity and identified single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers associated with genes controlling fruit size. In addition to the genomic toolkit useful for breeding programs aiming at pumpkin fruit traits, this study provides insight into population differentiation and evolutionary origins of rare variants contributing to the giant fruit size of certain pumpkin varieties.