Pig Genome Update No. 58angenmap@db.genome.iastate.eduJanuary 1, 2003 |
Swine improvement was the topic at the National Swine Improvement Federation (NSIF) that met December 5-6 in Nashville, TN. Despite the ice and snow, the meeting was well attended by nearly 70 producers, swine industry personnel, researchers and students. The program featured many talks on developments related to improved reproduction, sow longevity, production developments and evaluation systems and meat quality. A special thanks goes out to the host Dr. Ken Stalder, University of Tennessee, and program chair, Dr. Jack Dekkers, Iowa State University. Program papers can be found in the near future at http://www.nsif.com .
See you in San Diego!!! The Plant and Animal Genome XI will again be at the Town & Country Convention Center in San Diego, CA, from Saturday, January 11 through Wednesday, January 15, 2003. The Swine Workshop/NRSP8 meeting will begin at 9:30 am Saturday, Jan. 11 and has an excellent program that shouldn't be missed (see http://www.intl-pag.org/11/11-swine.html ). Please see www.intl-pag.org/ to view the program and register. As usual, some support will be available from the Swine Coordinator for NRSP-8 members and student participation. If interested, please email the Coordinator at mfrothsc@iastate.edu. Don't leave for San Diego without your grant being submitted. The 2003 USDA-CSREES NRI grant program RFA has been posted at http://www.reeusda.gov/nri/programs/programs.htm . Deadline dates for the Animal Genome and Genetic Mechanisms (43.0) and the associated Animal Genome: Basic Reagents and Tools (43.1) programs have been moved forward to January 15, 2003! (For FY 2004, these deadline dates will move even earlier, to Dec. 1, 2003). Peter Brayton of NRI has alerted us that Bioinformatics applications may be submitted to both the Reagents and Tools program just mentioned and to program 44.0, Animal Health & Well-Being. Congratulations go to Dr. Richard Frahm, USDA-CSREES Director of the National Animal Genome Research Program, who has announced his intention to retire as of the end of 2002. Dick has supplied leadership to our program for ten years now. His help has been invaluable to us all and he'll be greatly missed. Happily, we've persuaded him to attend one more PAG meeting this January in San Diego, so most of us will get a chance to thank him in person. Please come and wish him well. Porcine genome sequencing is being considered. A "White Paper" was submitted to NHGRI recently. Thanks to the efforts of Gary Rohrer, USDA-ARS, US Meat Animal Research Center; Jonathan E. Beever, University of Illinois; Max F. Rothschild, Iowa State University; Larry Schook (corresponding author) University of Illinois; and Richard Gibbs and George Weinstock, Baylor College of Medicine, Human Genome Sequencing Center the "White Paper" is now being considered and will hopefully obtain "high priority ranking". In addition to the efforts of the authors, the White Paper received solid backing from our colleagues abroad in Denmark, China, Scotland and France and solid support from industry personnel from many companies and organizations. We thank each of them for their support. Would you order pig gene arrays for your research?? The US Pig Genome Coordinator is working on making pig gene microarray materials available to each lab at a reduced cost by helping to pay the "design costs". After considerable efforts to work out reasonable solutions to many problems, we are finalizing efforts. We are considering "spotted" arrays/chips with clones and/or oligos. Of concern is the question of are there enough customers out there that want to purchase such arrays and at what cost. If you are interested in such arrays, please contact the US Pig Genome Coordinator at mfrothsc@iastate.edu . Please note - we will be discussing at the Saturday Swine Workshop at PAG. Upcoming meetings: (see: http://www.genome.iastate.edu/community/meetings.html )- Plant and Animal Genome XI, and NAGRP, Jan. 11-15, 2003, Town & Country
Convention Center, San Diego, CA. For more information see information on
the web at www.intl-pag.org.
- Advances in Genome Biology & Technology (joint with Automation in Mapping
and DNA Sequencing), February 5-8, 2003, Marco Island, Florida. See
www.agbt.org.
- International Symposium on Animal Functional Genomics, May 9-11, 2003,
Kellogg Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. Email
rosag@msu.edu for more info.
- The John M. Airy Beef Cattle Symposium 2003: Visions for Genetics and Breeding May 15-17, 2003 in Des Moines, Iowa will be hosted by Iowa State University. For more information contact James Reecy at jreecy@iastate.edu.
Additional items can be found at: http://www.agbiotechnet.com/calendar/index.asp .
A special thank you to each of you for your help and support of my role as coordinator. The success of this effort depends on all of us and this year I have been blessed with excellent support from many of you. In particular I want to thank Drs. Yuandan Zhang and Zhiliang Hu for their help in database activities and members of the ISU team who help send out primers and process the newsletter. Finally, a special thanks to all who offer constructive suggestions and help in getting the job done. I wish all of you a happy holiday season and healthy and productive New Year.Items for Pig Genome Update 59 can be sent to me by no later than February 15 please.
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.edu
cc: Dick Frahm, CSREES and Roger Gerrits, ARS
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