NDSU doctoral students Katherine Running and Evan Salsman received Best Poster awards at the first International Wheat Congress held July 21-26 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Running received the award for her poster, “Toward the Molecular Cloning of a Septoria Nodorum Blotch Susceptibility Gene in Durum Wheat,” in the Durum Expert Working Group. She is a doctoral student in genomics and bioinformatics from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Her graduate research focus is map-based cloning and genomic analysis of necrotrophic effector sensitivity genes Snn5 and Tsc1 in wheat. She is advised by Justin Faris, adjunct professor and USDA-ARS research geneticist.
Salsman received the award for his poster, “Genomic Selection of Grain Yield and Quality Traits in the NDSU Durum Wheat Breeding Population,” in the Quality Expert Working Group. He is a doctoral student in plant sciences from Fargo. His graduate research focuses on predicting agronomic and quality traits in an active durum wheat breeding program using DNA markers and existing phenotype data. He is advised by Xuehui Li, assistant professor of statistical genomics.
The congress was the first meeting of its kind, and included a program covering six areas of wheat research. The meeting was hosted by the Wheat Initiative and the University of Saskatchewan.
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