Graduate Student Research Assistant
CurrentThesis Title: Phenotypic Characterization and Marker Development for Non-Race 1 Verticillium Wilt Resistance in Two Tomato Recombinant Inbred Line Populations. As a Masters student based in Mills River, NC at the mountain horticultural crops research and extension center, my role was to phenotype two advanced Recombinant Inbred Line (RIL) mapping populations with resistance to non-race one Verticillium wilt caused by the soil-borne vascular wilting pathogen V. dahliae. I then identified statistically significant linkage between Verticillium resistance and a morphological marker with potential for use in hybrid development, and a number of relevant QTLs with meaningful effects. I also took samples that led to the discovery of a irregular strain of Verticillium wilt that had not been found in NC before. I employed a root dipping pathology assay to assess the possible impact of the irregularity on our breeding material. Listed below are the major skills I have developed in the course of my MS degree, if I had to pick three I would highlight plant phenotyping in the field for multiple traits, "Tooth to tail"Computational Genomics- Including Genotypic data alignment through Bowtie2 (UNIX), reformatting through SAMtools (UNIX), QTL identification (GAPIT (R environment), TASSEL 5.0(UI),and some experience with GWASpoly(R environment)).