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Pig Genome Newsletter #024
Pig Genome 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.
Its 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.
Its 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 F. 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
Paid for by funds from the NRSP-8 USDA/CSREES sponsored Pig Genome
Coordination Program.
