1993 Ph.D., Department of Ecology and Evolution, SUNY at Stony Brook
1983 B.S. Biology, Boston College

Invitations to Symposia / Workshops

2005

Genomics in vegetable germplasm conservation, "Translational genomics of vegetable crops", Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. Vegetable Breeding Working Group, Las Vegas, NV.

FTA cards in plant conservation genetics, "Whatman Workshop: Applications of FTA technology for molecular analysis of plant and animal samples, Plant and Animal Genome XIII, San Diego, CA.

2000

Germplasm diversity in its evolutionary context: U.S. maize as a case study, " Integration of biodiversity and genome technology for crop improvement", NIAR, Tsukuba, Japan.

1997

Genetic diversity and heterosis in recurrent selection programs, "The genetics and exploitation of heterosis in crops: An international symposium", Mexico City, Mexico.

Population genetic analysis of molecular marker data, "Statistical genetic tools for analyzing genetic marker data", Crop Science Society of America, Anaheim, CA.

Grants Received

Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.
$70,000
10/1/97-9/30/00
Detecting molecular genetic changes concurrent with phenotypic selection in maize
K.R. Lamkey, J.A. Labate, S. Kresovich

USDA-NRICGP
$340,000
10/1/99-9/30/02
A survey of microsatellite variation in U.S. Corn Belt germplasm

Training

Microsoft Access 2000 at Frank A. Lee Library (April 21, 2005), Cornell Univ.

Association mapping at the Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics (May 31 - June 2, 2004), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. Instructors: D. Nielson, L. Cardon, M. Ehm, and E. Buckler

NCBI workshop at Cornell Theory Center "A Field Guide to GenBank and NCBI Molecular Biology Resources" (April 26 - 27, 2004).

Summer Workshop on Molecular Evolution (July 30 - Aug. 9, 2001). Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA.

Visiting Scientist in Dr. Stephen Kresovich's laboratory to learn maize SSR multiplexing technology (Feb. - Mar., 1998). Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit, USDA-ARS, Griffin, GA.

Mapping quantitative trait loci and population genetic data analysis at the Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics (June 10 -15, 1996), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. Instructors: Z.-B. Zeng and B.S. Weir

Awards

2005 USDA-ARS Performance Award

2004 USDA-ARS Spot Award for generous participation in job candidate selection

2003 Crop Science Society of America Outstanding Paper on Plant Genetic Resources

2003 USDA-ARS Performance Award

2002 USDA-ARS Spot Award for teaching PCR class to non-scientists

2002 USDA-ARS Performance Award

Outreach

2005
Bring a Child to Work Day

2004
PGRU Open House

Career Day Fair for Marcus-Whitman Middle School, Geneva High School

2003
Finger Lakes Community College Project ACE (Achieving Career Equity) mentor Project ACE/Canandaigua Chamber of Business Education

2002
Science-Tech Exploration Day for Girls (Project ACE) Career Fair for Finger Lakes High Schools ongoing Sigma Xi Partners in Science Education

Contributing Papers (oral)

2004
Baldo, A.M., Huntley, D. and J. Labate. Using the SEAN package to predict SNPs in tomatoes. BOSC 2004, Glasgow, Scotland.

1997
Labate, J.A. Temporal changes in allele frequencies in two directionally selected maize populations, Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution, Boulder, CO.

1996
Labate, J.A. Characterization of molecular genetic variation after 12 cycles of reciprocal recurrent selection in BSSS and BSCB1. 7th Interregional Corn Conference, St. Louis, MO.

1993
Labate, J.A. Molecular evolution of the runt locus in Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans. Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution, Athens, GA.

1992
Labate, J.A. Nucleotide polymorphism at the runt locus in Drosophila melanogaster. Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution, Berkeley, CA.

Posters

2005
Highly polymorphic genes in cultivated tomato. ASHS, Las Vegas, NV.
Discovery of highly polymorphic genes in tomato cultivars. ISMB, Detroit, MI.

2004
Prediction of single nucleotide polymorphisms in domestic tomato: How useful is EST sequence diversity? Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology, Glasgow, UK.

Utility of BoCAL-a and BoAP1-a genotypes in identifying broccoli and cauliflower accessions. ASHS, Austin, TX.

BoGSL-ELONG as a candidate diagnostic marker in phenotypically diverse Brassica populations. Eastern Great Lakes Molecular Evolution Meeting VIII. Ithaca, NY.

Use of sequence-based polymorphisms for studying genetic diversity of winter squash. Eastern Great Lakes Molecular Evolution Meeting VIII. Ithaca, NY.

A search for molecular diversity in tomato. Plant and Animal Genome XII, San Diego, CA.

Sequence-based amplified polymorphisms (SBAPS) are useful for studying genetic diversity of winter squash. Plant and Animal Genome XII, San Diego, CA.

2003
Polymorphism prediction. Annual New England Molecular Evolutionary Biologists Meeting, Storrs, Connecticut.

Polymorphism prediction. Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology, Brisbane, Australia.

Genotypes at the BoCAL-a locus in B. oleracea do not predict broccoli, cauliflower, and purple cauliflower phenotype. Annual International Conference of the ASHS. Providence, RI.

2002
Genotypes at the BoCAL Locus in Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Purple Cauliflower Accessions. Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution. Champaign-Urbana, IL.

Genetic variation in heirloom versus modern tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) cultivars. 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, NYC, NY.

Genotype variation in duplicate accessions of heirloom tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum) using eight microsatellite markers. Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, NYC, NY.

1999
Genetic diversity in modern maize inbreds compared to ancestral populations using SSRs. Annual Meeting of the American Society of Agronomy, Salt Lake City, UT.

Genetic diversity in modern maize inbreds compared to ancestral populations using microsatellite markers. Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution, Madison, WI.

1998
Molecular variation in two maize populations undergoing selection for improved hybrid performance. International Plant Genome Conference, San Diego, CA.

1997
Molecular variation in two maize populations undergoing selection for improved hybrid performance. Annual Maize Genetics Conference, Clearwater, FL.

1996
Molecular variation in two synthetic maize populations undergoing reciprocal recurrent selection. Annual Meeting of the American Society of Agronomy, Indianapolis, IN.

Invited Talks

2005
Molecular research in the PGRU seed crops collection. NE-09 Technical Advisory Committee meeting, Geneva, NY

2004
Seed Crops Research at PGRU. Dept Hort Sciences, Cornell Univ., Geneva, NY

Overview of Lycopersicon activities at USDA-ARS Plant Genetic Resources Unit.Steve Tanksley Lab, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY.

2003
Molecular marker work in vegetable crops. NE-09 Technical Advisory Committee meeting, Geneva, NY.

2000
Germplasm diversity in its evolutionary context: U.S. maize as a case study. USDA/ARS Plant Genetic Resources Unit, Cornell Univ., Geneva, NY.

1999
Microevolutionary studies in a corn breeding program. USDA/ARS Center for Bioinformatics and Comparative Genomics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

1998
Microevolutionary studies in a corn breeding program. Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX. Using genetic markers to study evolutionary processes: An example in maize. Department of Biology, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA..

Microevolutionary studies in a maize breeding program. Department of Genetics, NC State University, Raleigh, NC.

Microevolutionary studies of cultivated maize. Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit, USDA-ARS, Griffin, GA.

1997
Population genetic studies in a public corn breeding program. Pioneer Hi-Bred Int., Inc., Johnston, IA Using genetic markers to study evolutionary processes: Maize as a case study. Department of Biology, California State University, Bakersfield, CA.

Molecular genetic diversity in maize populations. Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR.

1996
Genetic diversity and allele frequency change in BSSS(R) and BSCB1(R) maize populations. Pioneer Hi-Bred Int., Inc., Johnston, IA

1995
RFLP marker variation in BSSS(R) and BSCB1(R) maize populations. Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.

Evolution of gene expression. Biology Department, Cornell College, Mount Vernon, IA.

Detecting natural selection using DNA sequence variation. Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.

1993
Evidence for selection at the runt locus in D. melanogaster. Waksman Institute, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ.

Memberships in Societies

Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society
American Society of Agronomy/Crop Science Society of America