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Personnel updates
A few weeks ago, the lab group (and significant others) got together for a summer cook-out and to say farewell to postdoc Laura Shannon, who is starting her own potato breeding and genetics research program as an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota! We also recently welcomed two new people to the lab. Postdoc…
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New publications
Two new publications from the group appeared online at the start of the new year! The first paper concerns ClusterCall, a new R package for making tetraploid genotype calls from the potato SNP array. Because commercial potato germplasm is autotetraploid, there are three possible heterozygous genotypes for bi-allelic SNPs, which complicates conversion of the raw signal…
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Rhinelander Field Day 2016
My field day presentation at the Rhinelander Agricultural Research Station made the cover of the August 2016 issue of the Common’Tater.
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SpudPro Field Day 2016
The SpudPro committee of the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association (WPVGA) meets 2-3 times per year to discuss new varieties coming out of the breeding program. This summer we met in a Plover-area hotel for the business meeting and then headed to Plover River Farms, where Mike Copas (Senior Agronomist, RPE) discussed some preliminary results…
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Hodag potato
In March 2016, the WPVGA SpudPro committee voted to name breeding line W5955-1 ‘Hodag’, after the mythical creature and local mascot of Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Here is one interpretation of the Hodag potato (note the sprouts), drawn by group member Cari Schmitz Carley, who grew up in Rhinelander: The real Hodag potato is less frightening, as seen…
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Hello Maria
Maria Caraza has joined the lab as a PhD student in the Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics program. Maria has been involved with potato research for many years, including at the International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, Peru, and for her MS degree at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. Maria’s research focus will be on the…