GrainGenes

MINUTES OF THE WHEAT CROP GERMPLASM COMMITTEE

12 November, 1997.

Roseville, MN, USA.

Eleven of the 14 committee members were in attendance. The meeting also was attended by several members of the National Wheat Improvement Committee and a few other nonmembers. Those present included John Moffatt, Frederick L. Kolb, Jim Peterson, John Raupp, David Marshall, Rollie Sears, Anne McKendry, Yue Jin, Kim Campbell, Russ Karow, Jim Anderson, Bob Busch, Dale Clark, Steve Harrison, Jackie Rudd, Brent Skovmand, and Roland F. Line. In total, 22 people attended the meeting.

The 1996 minutes.

The 1996 minutes were approved and published in Volume 43 of the Annual Wheat Newsletter for 1997.

National topics.

GRIN. Mark Bohning reported that GRIN is now available on the World Wide Web, and that the USDA-ARS is developing a PC-based version of GRIN. There has been considerable overseas interest in the GRIN system, and it will be translated into Spanish by 1 January, 1998. A discussion was held in reference to the GAO report on the germplasm system, and all participants were pleased with the report.

Seed storage. No new comments were made on seed storage.

Core subsets. No changes were reported. A preliminary core subset of approximately 10 % of the total was put together by country of origin, but selections were random within a country. There is hope to reduce this total (> 4,000) to a smaller number. Regeneration of entries has been slowed because of quarantine problems. ARS is continuing to use Maricopa, AZ, for greenhouse quarantine work.

Global issues. No new comments were made on global issues.

Quarantine issues. Bob Busch stated that sending seed to South America is now very difficult, because of are new restrictions on shipping seed.

Survey of plant breeders. Committee members were urged to respond to the survey coordinated by Ken Frey, the Genetic Enrichment Questionnaire.

Wheat germplasm topics.

Germplasm collection. Harold Bockelman reported that Cal Qualset sent more than 7,000 land races from Iran to be included in the National Germplasm collection. The seed will need to be increased before evaluation and inclusion into the collection. They look promising as sources of Russian Wheat aphid resistance. CIMMYT tested 2,500 of the lines, and 60 % showed resistance to Russian Wheat aphid. Accessions of Aegilops species from Israel are currently being studied for possible inclusion in the collection. Therefore, the size of the collection is expected to increase dramatically.

There was considerable discussion on what entries should be included in the germplasm collection and on what role the committee should have in determining what should be included. Harold Bockelman will report on this next year.

Acquisition of new breeding materials. Harold Bockelman requested that new cultivars, germplasm, or important breeding lines be sent to him for inclusion in the collection. There was considerable discussion on the criteria needed for including foreign cultivars and accessions.

A proposal for 4­5 year short-term rotating collections was made. The possible inclusion of uniform nursery entries was suggested, but changes in the nursery policy will need to be made. John Moffatt moved we appoint an ad hoc committee to study the possibility of small 5-year collections. Electronic notification of the existence and content of short-term collections would be needed.

Genome. Olin Anderson noted that the corn researchers requested $142 million over 5 years and received $40 million through NSF. The wheat and barley labs have now written a joint wheat and barley genomics project. A meeting has been proposed for this January, 1998, to discuss the plan with science, industry, and grower representatives.

Grain Genes. A collection of 1,100 clones is available with a 2-week turnaround time, and all relevant information is on Grain Genes. USDA reviewed many programs including Grain Genes, and the review was favorable, especially with regard to the web home page and international outreach. A new Windows 95 version of the Grain Genes Database will soon be available.

Reports of Meetings, Monographs.

Harold Bockelman reported that a letter went out on the 50th anniversary of the National Small Grains Collection. The staff is compiling images of small grain scientists. Harold requested names of people to contact and photographs of people, germplasm, diseases, etc.

The International Wheat Genetics Symposium is scheduled for August, 1998, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The Biennial Smut Meeting is to be held in June 1998 in Pullman, WA.

Wheat Crop Germplasm Committee Chair.

Roland Line resigned as Chairman of the Wheat Crop Germplasm Committee. Stephen S. Jones was selected as the new Chairman. Steve Leath will remain as the Vice-Chairman.