Pig Genome Update No. 24
May 1, 1997
We in the entire U.S. animal genome community owe Dr. Neal Jorgensen a big debt of thanks! Neal, more than anyone in the Experiment Stations, helped to develop and shape the National Animal Genome Program which led to the NRSP-8. During his tenure as the lead administrative advisor Neal has helped to organize scientists, plan the program, secure funding for all of the collaborative and cooperative efforts and to defend NRSP-8 from those that who have liked to eliminate it. Neal is retiring from the University of Wisconsin this year where he has been a valued faculty member and administrator for the past 29 years. A reception in his honor will be May 28 and as part of the retirement there will be a gift of a book of letters. Please consider sending Neal a letter of thanks for his efforts. The letters should be unfolded and sent to Ms. Jenny Hergenrother, College of Agric. and Life Sciences, 140 Ag Hall, 1450 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706 by no later than May 19.
Thanks to some great ideas there will be additional resources to share in 1997. The coordination effort is a joint effort between all of us and we are always looking for ideas from pig gene mappers. We already have accomplished many of these suggestions. This year in addition to supporting microsatellite primers, fluorescent microsatellite primers and travel and conference support, we have a few new resources planned (see below).
One of the successful ideas from the NC-210 rewrite was the making of a set of primers for expression studies. Differential Display PCR (dd-PCR) is a powerful method for elucidating differences and/or changes in gene expression between animals with divergent phenotypes. This primer set consists of 10 oligo-dT anchor antisense primers with different 2-base extensions on the 3' end, and 20 arbitrary 10-mer sense primers (5'), yielding a total of 200 primer combinations for screening cDNA populations. Each anchor primer has T7 sequence on the 5' end, while each arbitrary primer has M13 sequence on the 5' end. These extensions allow for simplified reamplification, sequencing, and expression studies of bands of interest. The set was put together by Daniel Pomp and will be and ready for distribution very soon. Given the more limited production of these primers, priority for distribution will be NC-210 members and pig gene researchers. If interested, please send a request after May 10 with a short explanation for their use to mfrothsc@iastate.edu.
A third set of fluorescently labeled primers for pig microsatellites is now being compiled. Funds for these materials are provided by the USDA-CSREES Pig Genome Coordination Project. Suggestions to produce additional primer pairs are also welcome. This next year's goal will be to make at least an additional 50 pairs.
It's time again to consider the renewal for NRSP-8. National Animal Genome Research Program renewal application will be due late this year. A writing committee has been formed consisting of the Technical Committee Chairperson and Secretary (H. Cheng and D. Pomp), Species Technical Committee Chairpersons (A. Ponce de Leon, N. Cockett, A. Clutter, A. Bowling, A. Alcivar-Warren) and Species Coordinators (J. Womack, M. Rothschild, N. Cockett, E. Bailey and J. Dodgson). The draft objectives are: Objective 1: Develop high resolution comparative genome maps aligned across species that link the maps of agricultural animals to those of the human and mouse; Objective 2: Increase the marker density of existing linkage maps to enhance their utility in QTL mapping and integrate them with complete physical maps of chromosomes; and Objective 3: Expand the development and usage of internationally shared species genome databases and provide other common resources to promote cooperation and avoid duplication of efforts. Many details remain to be worked out, but at present we will request continuation of Coordination funding through NRSP-8 at existing levels except that in the future this would be spread over new initiatives in addition to poultry, cattle, swine and sheep. A new round of competition for Species Coordinators would take place. Suggestions on any aspects of the NRSP-8 renewal would be welcomed by the writing committee (kindly provided by Jerry Dodgson).
The revised Regional Project NC-210 "Mapping the Pig Genome" received a very favorable review from the North Central Directors. The project will have as its objectives to 1) Develop and apply technology for positional cloning of ETL in the pig and 2) Analyze the function and expression of genes that regulate traits of economic importance in the pig. Participants in the revised project include ARS-BARC, Brigham Young Univ., Iowa State Univ., Kansas State Univ., Michigan State Univ., Oklahoma State Univer., Univ. of Illinois, Univ. of Minnesota and the Univ. of Nebraska. Thanks to all the people who helped in the writing and review of this collaborative effort.
It's not too late to start planning for the PAGVI meeting in San Diego. The Plant and Animal Genome VI will be January 18-22, 1998 and again will be in San Diego. The organizing committee is already well along in planning next year's PAG-VI Ideas for workshops and speakers can be directed to any of the planning committee (Daniel Pomp, Jay Hetzel, Hans Cheng and Max Rothschild). Next year's meeting will run in similar fashion with the probable addition of new species groups and a meeting with industry representatives as a mechanism to obtain more input and advice from them. Hotel accomodations for PAG-VI next January will be limited by the fact that the Superbowl will follow us into San Diego on the weekend after the meeting. Those who wish to attend will need to get their application forms in promptly. These will be distributed later in the year. Travel assistance from Pig Genome Coordination funds will again be available to help those who need it. If you missed PAGV, you can find the abstracts and other information at: http://probe.nalusda.gov:8000/otherdocs/pg/pg5/allabstracts.html.
Genetic diversity studies using pigs are underway. A panel of microsatellites have been defined by the PiGMaP consortium for genetic diversity studies. This panel has also been selected by the ISAG-FAO advisory group (see http://dad.fao.org/dad-is/data/molecula/modad.htm) for Domestic Animal Diversity analysis at a world wide level. The list of 27 markers is available at http://www.toulouse.inra.fr/lgc/pig/panel.htm, with standard patterns obtained at INRA on ABI sequencers. Labelled primers for those markers could be provided by the U.S. Pig Genome Coordinator Max Rothschild. To be able to combine data obtained by various laboratories, a set of 4 control animals from PiGMaP families have been defined. Reference genotypes on these 4 animals obtained on can be found at http://www.toulouse.inra.fr/lgc/pig/panel/controlgeno.htm. Recommendations for these diversity studies are available at http://www.toulouse.inra.fr/lgc/pig/panel/control.htm. If you intend to analyze breeds using these markers, and if you wish to add your data to the PiGMaP analysis, or for additional information, please contact Denis Milan at milan@toulouse.inra.fr (kindly provided by Denis Milan)
Upcoming meetings:
5th International Conference on Pig Reproduction, June 1-4 1997. Meeting is held every 4 years and will be in Rolduc, The Netherlands. For information please contact Dr. Bas Kemp, Agriculture University, Wageningen, The Netherlands Fax: 31-8370-85006.
Biotechnologies of Animal Disease Resistance Symposium, sponsored by the Food Animal Biotechnology Center, U. of Minnesota, June 2-3, 1997, St. Paul Hotel, St. Paul, MN. Contact fabctr@maroon.tc.umn.edu or call (612) 624-2700; Fax: (612) 624-7284.
From Genes to Proteins, June 9-10, 1997, and/or Bioinformatics and Genome Research, June 11-12, 1997, both at the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, CA. Sponsored by Cambridge Healthtech Institute, 1037 Chestnut St., Newton Upper Falls, MA 02164; Tel: 617-630-1300; Fax: 617-630-1325; http://www.healthtech.com/conferences/; email: chi@healthtech.com.
International Conference on Animal Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, People's Republic of China; June 11-14, 1997; contact Ning Li, phone 86 10 62633055 or 86 10 62632715, Fax: 86 10 62582332 or 86 10 62582128, email: ninglbau@public3.bta.net.cn.
Transgenic Animals in Agriculture, Granlibakken Conference Center, Tahoe City, CA, August 24-27, 1997; see http://pubweb.ucdavis.edu/Documents/BIOT ECH/biotech1.htm.
International Course in QTL Detection and Marker-Assisted Selection, Mitzpa Rachel Convention Center, Jerusalem, Israel, August 24-Sept. 4, 1997 (dates tentative). Contact: Joel Weller at weller@agri.huji.ac.il.
6th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia, January 12-16, 1998. Contact: Dr. Laurie Piper at 61 67 73-3609, Fax: 61 67 73-3611, email: 6wcgalp@mendel.une.edu.au.
PAGVI, January 18-22, San Diego CA.
Contributions to Pig Genome Update 25 including short meeting announcements are always welcome. Please send by June 10.
Max Rothschild
U.S. Pig Genome Coordinator
225 Kildee Hall, Department of Animal Science
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 50011
Phone: 515-294-6202, Fax: 515-294-2401
mfrothsc@iastate.edu
cc: Dick Frahm, CSREES and Roger Gerrits, ARS
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