|
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: GAYLE VOLK, PH.D.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Volk has recently published
a paper describing the genetic
relationships among 212 garlic accessions available in
the U.S. This work has been cited by the NY Times and Chicago
Tribune. She is particularly interested in the influence of
growth environment on bulb phenotype (appearance, sulfur content,
antioxidant level, storability). She will receive bulbs from
growers, collect data, perform antioxidant assays, and analyze
data using appropriate statistical techniques. Her participation
in this project will ensure that valuable data will be published
in the scientific community in addition to presentation in
grower outreach programs.
Gayle updates "Notes
from the Lab" to keep the public infomed about what
is going in in the laboratory.
BIOGRAPHY
Gayle Volk, Ph.D. USDA-ARS National Center for Genetic
Resources Preservation Ft. Collins, Colorado
I'm originally from Corvallis, Oregon and I received my undergraduate
degree in Biochemistry from Colorado State University. I continued
my education for an M.S. degree in Horticulture from Purdue
and a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from Cornell. My husband and
I spent a year in Pullman Washington while I did a post-doc
in Plant Cell Biology at Washington State University, and
then I accepted a position in the Research Unit at the USDA-ARS
National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Ft Collins,
Colorado in 1999. My research involves conservation and preservation
of plant species maintained in the USDA National Plant Germplasm
System (NPGS). I am currently working on conservation strategies
for garlic, apple, pear, peach, Jerusalem artichoke, and grape
collections. I also have projects to determine the mechanism
of how plant shoot tips and seeds can tolerant long-term storage
at -196oC (liquid nitrogen temperatures) using ultrastructural,
biophysical and molecular biology techniques.
My genetic diversity studies of garlic began several years
ago when we wanted to assess the extent of genetic diversity
in the NPGS garlic collection, maintained in Pullman, Washington.
Using our results, we could prioritize accessions for long-term
cryopreservation. We identified distinct groups of garlic
that were genetically very similar, which are the focus of
the NE-SARE project. As principle investigator on the NE-SARE
grant, I am responsible for distributing garlic to the growers,
and I will receive the bulbs from the 11 farm participants
in our project. We'll collect data on the bulbs and cloves
(including sulfur content and antioxidant levels). I will
interpret our results and prepare research publications.
My husband, John, is a research associate in the Horticulture
Dept. at Colorado State University. I have a 5 year old daughter
(Emily) and a 3 year old son (Christopher) who love to help
plant and harvest garlic. We enjoy traveling, camping, hiking,
gardening and spending quality time with our kids.
|
 |
Photo
(300 DPI)
