Author Archives: janetvanzoeren

Grape Selections from the VitisGen and VitisGen2 Projects

The VitisGen and VitisGen2 projects represent major investments in understanding grapevine genetics – and particularly in identifying markers associated with desirable traits for use in ‘marker-assisted selection’.   DNA markers identified by geneticists and breeders are now incorporated into several selections and mapping … Continue reading

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International collaboration advances research into grape disease resistance

The effectiveness of a collaboration between two research teams can be greater than the sum of its parts. This was part of the incentive for German scientist Daniel Zendler, a leading expert on the Ren3 and Ren9 genes for powdery … Continue reading

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Staff spotlight with new project manager, Ugo Ikeogu

We recently mentioned that VitisGen2 has a new project manager, Ugo Ikeogu. We’re very excited to have him on board! We’ve asked him a few questions about his background, extensive experience with genetics and phenotyping, what he’s looking forward to … Continue reading

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RIPE article and staff spotlight on Olena Sambucci

Olena Sambucci, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis, focuses her research on the economic trade-offs between grape traits, including disease resistance, wine varietal name, flavor profiles, and many other factors. She is part of VitisGen2’s economics team, under the guidance … Continue reading

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New “Research In Plain English” article on foliar phylloxera resistance

Our new “Research In Plain English” article is now available: “New resistance genes mapped for an important foliar insect pest of some hybrid grape cultivars“

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Using neural networks to identify Powdery Mildew

‘Practice makes perfect’ is undeniably cliché, but its truth is evident to everyone who has ever tried to learn a new skill.  Whether it’s hitting baseballs, pushing piano keys, or pipetting off supernatant, this inevitable cycle of trial and error … Continue reading

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New staff spotlight featuring Mélanie Massonnet from UC Davis

Mélanie is a postdoctoral associate in Dario Cantu’s lab in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University of California in Davis. She is in charge of the genome-wide transcriptional analyses of the breeding populations for powdery mildew resistance … Continue reading

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Staff Spotlight on Cheng Zou

VitisGen2 team member Cheng Zou, postdoctoral researcher in Qi Sun’s lab at Cornell University, talks about finding a core-genome markers for comparing genotypic data across all grape species, and the applications for marker assisted selection and quantitative trait mapping! Don’t … Continue reading

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New RIPE article on genetic linkage mapping

Our new “Research In Plain English” article is now available: “A new locus associated with downy mildew resistance is found by creating a more accurate genetic linkage map” Our VitisGen2 teams are doing a lot of great work learning about … Continue reading

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Qi Sun, Anne Fennell and Dario Cantu participate in INTEGRAPE meeting in Greece.

The Integrape meeting is focused on developing FAIR (Findable, Accesible, Interoperable and Reusable) standards to harmonize databases on Vitis genomics, genetics, and breeding. Report written by Qi Sun and Anne Fennell Integrape (http://www.integrape.eu) is a cooperation network sponsored by European Cooperation … Continue reading

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