Pig Genome Update No. 32
angenmap@iastate.edu
September 1, 1998
DENVER WAS PACKED WITH PEOPLE AND IDEAS. The joint ASAS and ADSA meeting attracted over 3,800 people for four and a half jammed days of symposiums, talks and posters. Some of the highlights included sessions on transgenics and one on cloning sponsored by the Animal Breeding and Genetics program committee. The cloning workshop was attended by 400 people and included talks on recent cloning updates (J. Woolliams), implications of cloning for breed improvement strategies (L. D. Van Vleck), ethical issues in livestock cloning (P. B. Thompson), cloning - an industry perspective (M. D. Bishop) and a town-hall discussion. These papers will be published in the Journal of Animal Science next year. Several other sessions dealing with QTLs, MAS and gene discoveries, combined with great hospitality made it a super meeting. Abstracts have been published in a JAS supplement.
DOWN UNDER WAS TOP OF THE WORLD. The 26th International Society of Animal Genetics meeting in Auckland, New Zealand was held August 9-14th. The meeting was attended by over 400 delegates and included 16 plenary talks, 17 workshops and over 325 posters. These are in part published in the proceedings and will be published in a later version of Animal Genetics. The organizing committee, chaired by Dr. Ian Anderson, and the scientific committee, chaired by Dr. Tom Broad, all deserve a tremendous thanks for not only their hospitality but the superb quality of the meeting. Highlights of the meeting are presented below.
LUCKY 13! THE PIG CHROMOSOME 13 WORKSHOP WAS A GREAT BEGINNING! A workshop on Pig Chromosome 13 was held on Sunday, August 9, 1998. Approximately 40 people attended the workshop sessions.
The first session included talks by Alan Archibald, Lee Alexander, and Deryl Troyer. Alan reported the integration of the PiGMaP-Nordic-MARC linkage maps, as well as integration of 99 additional AFLP markers, for a total of 208 markers on the integrated SSC13 map. Lee discussed the current status of the INRA-Minnesota Radiation Hybrid Panel, which has 757 markers in 187 linkage groups across all chromosomes, and 66 markers in 17 linkage groups on SSC13. Deryl reported that he has been successful in placing several microsatellites on the map using chromosome microdissection, as well as mapping loci by on-slide PCR using improved signal amplification techniques.
The second session had talks on the SSC13 comparative map by Luc Peelman, Martine Yerle, and Chris Tuggle. Luc presented mapping of 10 HSA3 loci to SSC13 by FISH. Martine discussed using the Toulouse Somatic Cell Hybrid Panel (SCHP), porcine YAC/BAC FISH and heterologous FISH techniques to map an additional 26 HSA3 genes to SSC13. Chris reported the mapping of five HSA21 genes by SCHP, BAC FISH and Radiation Hybrid panel mapping. He also summarized the SSC13 cytogenetic map from this new workshop data. There are now 46 comparative genes which show significant differences in gene order between HSA3 and SSC13, but conserved order between HSA21 and SSC13. The third session concerned QTL/ETL analyses involving SSC13. Luc Peelman presented a detailed map of the K88ab/ac locus, where he has identified new microsatellite loci localizing K88 to a 2 cm region. One marker showed no recombination with K88 and this marker was used as a starting point to develop a BAC contig for positional cloning of the K88 gene. Max Rothschild then presented a QTL analysis of the region around the POU1F1 (formerly PIT1) gene, which had previously been linked to early growth and carcass measurements. Backfat measures were significantly associated with the region near SWR1008, but clearly not POU1F1 which mapped 21 cm distant. Birth weight, however, was closely linked to the POU1F1 locus, confirming the original single marker association in this population. Several other groups reported negative results in QTL scans of SSC13 (A. Archibald, G. Moser). Thus, it is unclear if joint analysis would be useful and there was a lively debate on this topic. Denis Milan then gave the Advanced Technology Plenary lecture, providing the group with the integration of technologies being used in the RN mapping project on chromosome 15.
The Chromosome 13 Workshop was supported by a USDA-NRI grant, the USDA NRSP Pig Genome Coordination program and Pig Improvement Company (this report kindly supplied by Chris Tuggle).
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDED SEVERAL OTHER EVENTS AND PROGRAMS. The meeting kicked off with a great reception that began with renewing old acquaintances. Then in New Zealand fashion, we were herded to the welcoming speeches by two herding dogs and a shepherd. The warm welcome included some kind words from our hosts and was followed by a traditional Maori "challenge". We ended the evening with more conversation, food and beverages.
Plenary talks for the meeting included sessions on "Diversity" with talks on evolution (D. Lambert), fitness markers (J. Pemberton), mutation detection (R. Cotton) and marker assisted breeding programs (M. Walton). The second day included talks on imprinting (R. Pederson), Callipyge (N. Cockett), proteomics (A. Gooley), and ESTs (N. Jenkins). Internal mapping (S. Davies), disease QTL (A. Crawford), the Inverdale fecundity gene (S. Galloway) and ovine models for disease resistance (M. Broom) were on Thursday. The final session included candidate genes as QTL (M. Soller), markers in breeding programs (B. Kinghorn), applications and issues for MAS (L. Andersson) and the report of the 2nd QTL workshop (G. Davis). Many of these talks are summarized in abstracts.
In addition to the Chromosome 13 workshop, two other workshops were devoted to pigs. The Pig Blood Groups Workshop was chaired by Prof. Jan Meyer and included talks on disease resistance (Luc Peelman), meat quality (Denis Milan), reproduction (Max Rothschild), and new techniques (Bertram Brenig). Interesting discussions followed the presentations and it was clear that the molecular genetic efforts have moved quickly in the last two years. This brought about discussions on the need to rename this workshop to be more inclusive of all technologies and to work more closely with the other workshops.
THE PIG GENE MAPPING WORKSHOP DREW A VERY LARGE CROWD. Chaired by Alan Archibald, it included overviews on linkage mapping (Alan Archibald) and RH panel mapping (Martine Yerle, Denis Milan and Lee Alexander). Both reports show that the maps are progressing well, and by including AFLP markers, the linkage map will be nearly 3000 markers. The RH panel has nearly 900 markers (see the Chromosome 13 report above) and should be available in the near future for other researchers. A review of QTL and candidate gene discovery progress was presented by Max Rothschild. Several new findings include a new QTL for littersize on chromosome 8, one for growth on chromosome 1 and other repeated QTLs for several traits suggest we are finding and confirming several important chromosomal regions. Additional overview research reports included a report on the chromosome 13 workshop by Chris Tuggle (see above), and use of new technologies by Bertram Brenig. Discussions of work at individual institutions and needs for the next few years helped to complete an interesting afternoon. The new workshop committee for the next two years will include Leif Andersson, Martine Yerle, Max Rothschild, Alan Archibald, Chris Moran and Gary Rohrer (chair). Ideas for the next workshop can be addressed to Gary or other committee members.
POSTER SESSIONS WERE WELL ATTENDED AND INCLUDED MANY PIG POSTERS related to comparative mapping, biodiversity, QTLs and candidate genes. Poster awards were presented at the very nice conference dinner. These abstracts will be published in the near future. Other workshops of interest also included the Genetics of Immune Response Workshop, the other mapping workshops and the Diversity Workshop. All in all, we had a great meeting in New Zealand. Thanks again to all those who participated. We are all looking forward to the next meeting, which will be in Minneapolis in 2000.
We need to keep being involved and help promote animal genome work. The more we travel and discuss with our colleagues the more it is clear we as animal genome scientists are making great progress. We need to continue to inform the researchers, administrators and the public we work with of the importance of genome research involving farm animals and aquaculture. A recent letter to Nature by Dr. Michael Roberts emphasizes this nicely. Lets continue to work towards the extra funding we all need.
A SPECIAL CONFERENCE: FROM JAY LUSH TO GENOMICS: Visions for Animal Breeding and Genetics will be held May 16-18, 1999 at Iowa State University Ames, Iowa. This not-to-be-missed conference will bring together quantitative and molecular geneticists from industry, government, and academe to discuss the future of animal breeding and genetics in light of changes in the fields of molecular genetics and informatics. The program will feature eleven plenary lectures by renowned international scientists and a poster session of current research by participants. The schedule is arranged to encourage participant interaction and discussion. Information on the program and speakers can be seen at http://www.public.iastate.edu/~ans/graduate/visions.html .
MEETING UPDATES: Transgenic Animal - 2nd International Conference, Beijing, China. Will be held October 26-29, 1998. Contact ciccst@public.bta.net.cn.
Methods in Genome Sequencing and Analysis, Heidelberg, Germany will be held December 2-12, 1998. Contact Dr. W. Ansorge, EMBL at ansorge@embl-heidelberg.de. Plant and Animal Genome VII; San Diego, CA, January 17-21, 1999; associated with National Animal Genome Research Program meeting and NC-168 Regional Research meeting. Information will eventually be available at http://www.scherago.com . From Jay Lush to Genomics: Visions for Animal Breeding and Genetics will be held May 16-18, 1999 at Iowa State University Ames, IA. Information at: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~ans/graduate/visions.html . International Society of Animal Genetics , Minneapolis, MN, USA will be held July 24-27, 2000. Contact Brian Kirkpatrick at bwkirkpat@facstaff.wisc.edu.
Contributions to Pig Genome Update 31, including short meeting announcements, are always welcome. Please send by October 10.
Max Rothschild U.S. Pig Genome Coordinator 2255 Kildee Hall, Department of Animal Science Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 50011 Phone: 515-294-6202, Fax: 515-294-2401 mfrothsc@iastate.educc: Dick Frahm, CSREES and Roger Gerrits, ARS
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