Mercy N. Kitavi

This study presents a phased chromosome-level genome assembly of sweetpotato, revealing its origin from a wild tetraploid relative and identifying genetic relationships with other progenitors.

The paper catalogs NLR diversity in sweetpotato and wild relatives using RenSeq, identifying 800-1,200 NLRs and highlighting CNL diversity and conservation across genotypes.

The paper identifies genes associated with abiotic stress tolerance in sweetpotato using weighted gene co-expression network analysis and finds shared and unique transcriptional responses to heat, salt, and drought stresses.

The paper develops a 36-SNP marker set for quality assurance and control in sweetpotato breeding programs, showing it can detect mislabeling errors similarly to a high-density SNP set.

The paper quantifies phenotype misclassification and pedigree errors in sweetpotato breeding and shows their negative impact on QTL detection and genetic correlations.