West Virginia State University News January 31, 2012 WVSU Research Scientists Present to International Audience Drs. Umesh Reddy, Padma Nimmakayala, and Barbara Liedl, researchers in the West Virginia State University (WVSU) Gus R. Douglass Land-Grant Institute, traveled to San Diego, CA on January 14-18, 2012 to present their research findings at the 20th International Plant & Animal Genome (PAG) Conference. Dr. Umesh Reddy was one of five researchers to make a presentation in the Genomics of Genebanks workshop. Reddy's project, Identification of SNP Haplotypes and Prospects of Association Mapping in Watermelon, is a multistate project that includes collaborations with Ohio State University and the USDA-ARS Vegetable Laboratory in South Carolina. Dr. Padma Nimmakayala presented her work on Mining and Mapping of SSR Motifs from BAC-end Sequences of Watermelon as one of the six presenters in the Large Insert DNA Library Workshop. The project is in collaboration with scientists from Texas A&M University. WVSU graduate student, Mr. Aldo Almeida, presented "Genomic Strategies to Mine Alleles That Control Capsaicin, Dihydrocapsaicin and Related Compounds", a procedure to understand the effect of various alleles in the Capsaicin path way. Finally, Dr. Barbara Liedl, along with her collaborators from Ohio State University, Michigan State University, UC Davis, Oregon State University, and North Dakota State University, presented an hour long workshop entitled: Plant Translational Genomics and Crop Improvement: Partnering with the Plant Breeding and Genomics Community of Practice to Put Research into Practice. PAG is the largest agricultural genomics conference in the world, bringing together over 2,500 leading plant and animal genetic scientists from as far away as Brazil, China, South Korea and Sweden. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 Skype:sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.