Dr. Chin-Feng Hwang, professor of agriculture at Darr College of Agriculture at Missouri State University (MSU), Li-Ling Chen, research specialist in the Missouri State Fruit Experiment Station at Darr College of Agriculture at MSU,  and three students; Surya Sapkota, an MSU/University of Missouri collaborative Ph.D. student, and Jacob Schneider and Will Knuckles, both plant science Master’s students, attended the 42nd Annual Conference of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV) Eastern Section July 10-12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Making presentations

All three students delivered presentations:

• Sapkota presented a talk titled “Fine Mapping and Detection of Downy Mildew Resistance Locus in Norton-based Population”
• Schneider presented a poster titled “Genetic Study of Dormant Rooting Ability in Grapes”
• Knuckles presented a poster titled “The Identification of Interspecific Hybrids, Jaeger 70 x Vignoles Grapes Using SSR Markers”

Schneider and Knuckles also participated in a flash talk, giving three-minute presentations on their projects.

A worthwhile experience

“Various aspects of viticulture and enology research were represented at the conference,” Hwang said. “This conference provided an excellent opportunity for the students to share their research progress and interact with researchers from the Eastern United States and Canada.”

Sapkota said he appreciated the opportunity to attend the conference.

“It is very important when we do research to share it with other people and to learn from them as well.”

Schneider said it was a privilege to present his research.

“Sometimes you wonder if the work you do will be of use or noticed, so it is exciting to share at a conference where people actually want to know about it, and you can see how it contributes to the big picture.”

Knuckles said he enjoyed the vineyard tour he took on the trip.

“It allowed me to see how viticultural practices are being applied in the Shenandoah Valley and Piedmont Regions of Virginia.”

Breeding grapes

The overall goals of the MSU grape breeding program are to use DNA markers to rapidly deploy favorable alleles, accelerate breeding cycles for new cultivar release and train students in molecular genetic and genomic techniques required for their future careers.

“I’m very grateful that our students represented MSU so well at the conference,” said Chen.

The MSU Graduate College provided travel funding for Schneider and Knuckles to attend the conference.