Undergraduate Researcher

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY | June 2012 – August 2012 (3 months)
Scatter plots showing fluorescence-based genotyping of pepper resistance alleles using KASP markers. Left: pvr1 genotypes in CC population. Right: Bs3 genotypes in commercial cultivars. Color clusters indicate homozygous wild-type, homozygous resistance, and heterozygotes. Black x’s mark water controls and failed samples.
Genotyping of disease resistance alleles in pepper using KASP markers. Figure adapted from Holdsworth & Mazourek (2015), showing fluorescence-based genotyping of pvr1 and Bs3 alleles in Capsicum annuum. I contributed to this work as an undergraduate and was acknowledged in the publication.

Summary

  • Compared Genotype by Sequencing data from different restriction enzymes to Cucurbita pepo transcript sequences using BLAST

  • Developed and tested KASP markers for relevant genes in peppers to make available for breeding work

  • Extracted DNA and utilized PCR and DNA sequencing to determine whether a mutation in a predicted gene was responsible for the observed phenotype in peppers.

Relevant Publications

Development and application of a suite of non-pungency markers for the Pun1 gene in pepper (Capsicum spp.)

Wyatt, L. E., Eannetta, N. T., Stellari, G. M., & Mazourek, M.

Molecular Breeding • 2012

Development of user-friendly markers for the pvr1 and Bs3 disease resistance genes in pepper

Holdsworth, W. L., & Mazourek, M.

Molecular Breeding • 2015

References
Mazourek Lab KASP genotyping BLAST Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

More Work Experiences

Summer Undergraduate Researcher

Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca, NY | June 2012 – August 2012 (3 months)
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