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Pig Genome Newsletter #108
From: "Rothschild, Max F [AN S]" <mfrothsc@iastate.edu>
To: angenmap@animalgenome.org
Subject: US Pig Genome Newsletter #108
Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2011 08:32:10 -0500
Pig Genome Update # 108:
- PDF version is available at
http://www.animalgenome.org/pig/newsletter/pdf/No.108.pdf
- Web version is available at
http://www.animalgenome.org/pig/newsletter/No.108.html
- Plain text version is appended below:
P I G G E N O M E U P D A T E
_________________________________________________________________
A Periodic Newsletter of the U.S. Pig Genome Coordination Program
************** No. 108 **************
* *
* July 5, 2011 *
***************************************
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1. Swine sequence latest version nearly ready
2. New honorary members will be named
3. British Pig Breeders Roundtable was held in Canterbury, UK
4. The 64th Reciprocal Meat Conference of the American Meat Science
Association was held June 19-22 on the Kansas State University campus
5. Moshe Soller's 80th birthday symposium was held June 30
6. Still time to register and attend the ASAS and ASDS meeting to be
held July 10-14, 2011, New Orleans
7. Still time to register and attend the Swine in Biomedical Research
Conference 2011
8. Washington update
9. A data repository was set up by the NRSP-8 Bioinformatics Team
10. New publishing format for Pig Genome Update in force
11. Upcoming meetings ( 6 items )
===========================================================================
Swine sequence latest version nearly ready. A special edition of Pig
Genome Update will be sent when the sequence is completed and checked. The
hard work and extraordinary efforts of Mario Caccamo and many others in
this process is greatly appreciated.
o o o o o o o o o o o
New honorary members will be named. ISAG has the privilege of recognizing
scientists who have made significant contributions to the area of Animal
Genetics research with its highest honor, Honorary Membership. At the ISAG
Executive Committee meeting Jim Womack and Morris Soller were nominated
and voted to receive this honor. The election will be formally presented
at the business meeting on July 20, 2012 in Cairns.
o o o o o o o o o o o
British Pig Breeders Roundtable was held in Canterbury, UK. in June. More
than 40 researchers and industry personnel from around the world discussed
recent advances and issues relating to swine breeding. The role of
genomics and the pig sequence was included in many of the presentations.
The "closed" format of the meeting provided a platform for some
interesting debate around the opportunities and options. Although many of
the traits (meat quality, piglet mortality, boar taint, health/disease)
discussed would be recognized from recent meetings there was definitely an
optimistic view of progress.
o o o o o o o o o o o
The 64th Reciprocal Meat Conference of the American Meat Science
Association was held June 19-22 on the Kansas State University campus.
The core purpose of the American Meat Science Association is to "foster
community and professional development among individuals who create and
apply science to efficiently provide safe and high quality meat." Nowhere
is this purpose more evident than at the RMC. This meeting continues to
be the venue for explorations of discoveries and ideas that will lead to
innovation in meat science and the meat industry. This year's hosts were
Kansas State University and Cargill Inc. The motto for the 64th RMC was
"Developing Our Future". Sessions focused on the future demands on
agriculture to produce a plentiful safe food supply, produce a high
quality product, and ensure that the processes we use are efficient all
while we continue to meet the rising expectations of our domestic and
global markets. Dr. John Floros from Penn State University provided a
keynote talk entitled "Feeding the World - The Role of Science and
Technology in Addressing the Challenges". Mr. Frank Yiannas,
Vice-President for Food Safety for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., provided a
keynote talk centered on developing a food safety culture. Dr. Edgar
Chambers from Kansas State University helped to cap the conference with a
presentation entitled "Consumer Views on Food Safety". Technical program
topics included meat safety with an emphasis on non-O157 STECs, proteomic
applications in meat science, sustainability of food and meat production,
and best practices in meat product development. In addition, 52 different
reciprocation sessions were held to develop discussion and collaboration
in areas related to meat safety, meat quality, and meat value as well as
traditional and extension education. One hundred twenty abstracts from
the meeting will be published in Meat Science
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03091740). Program
highlights, proceeding papers, and presentations can be found on the home
page of the American Meat Science Association: www.meatscience.org
Follow the link entitled "RMC Info" (kindly provided by Steven Lonergan).
o o o o o o o o o o o
Moshe Soller's 80th birthday symposium was held June 30. Following up on
the special session at January's Plant and Animal Genome XIX meeting, an
International Symposium celebrating Professor Moshe Soller's 80th Birthday
was held on June 30th at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of
Life Sciences. Professor Soller has made many seminal contributions to
both animal and plant breeding. Speakers included colleagues, former
students and a Nobel laureate. For some pictures of the event please see
https://picasaweb.google.com/114821795473813999681/SollerSymposium?authkey=Gv1sRgCPX-x6jmtrqYFQ#
o o o o o o o o o o o
Still time to register and attend the American Society of Animal Science
and American Dairy Science joint annual meeting, July 10-14, 2011, New
Orleans, Louisiana. For details please see
http://adsa.asas.org/meetings/2011/
o o o o o o o o o o o
Still time to register and attend the Swine in Biomedical Research
Conference 2011. It will take place from July 17th to 19th, at the Chicago
Mart Plaza Holiday Inn. If you are interested in learning more about the
utility of pigs as biomedical models, please plan to attend. Go to
http://www.dbs.illinois.edu/comparativegenomics/ for all the details on
the meeting and to www.conferences.illinois.edu/sbr for registration and
abstract submission. See you in Chicago.
o o o o o o o o o o o
Washington update. As noted previously, the National Institute for Food
and Agriculture (NIFA) took one of the largest cuts, $125.9 million,
within USDA in the recent FY2011 Continuing Resolution passed by the U.S.
Congress. While the AFRI competitive grant program did receive a small
increase, this was far below the President's request and compromises their
ability to meet commitments made in previous grant cycles (see
http://www.nifa.usda.gov/funding/rfas/afri.html for RFA information).
Accordingly, AFRI will be reducing the 2011 allocation to all grants
awarded in FY 2010 on a continuation basis by 5 percent. These include
Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) grants and most grants made in
challenge area programs. NIFA also states that they anticipate making
fewer AFRI CAP grants in FY 2011 and that these grants will not be as
large. To date, Challenge Grant RFAs have been issued only in the
Childhood Obesity and Food Safety areas. It seems unlikely that an RFA
will be issued this year in the Global Food Security area due to the need
to provide downstream year support for last year's awarded Feed Efficiency
grants. If and when there will be another round of the NIFA (Pre- and
Postdoctoral) Fellows Program applications is not yet known. In even
bleaker news, the U.S. House Agriculture Appropriations Committee FY 2012
budget mark-up cuts AFRI by nearly $40M (15%) from this year's budget and
by nearly $100M from the President's request. While the final outcome is
not yet known, significant AFRI cuts are nearly certain, which will
further compromise the FY 2012 RFA, as much of the budget remains
committed to long term grants first approved in the FY 2010 RFA. On a
perhaps not an unrelated note, Dr. Roger Beachy resigned as Director of
NIFA, effective May 20, 2011, returning to the Danforth Institute in St.
Louis. Undersecretary Catherine Woteki has named Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young
as Acting Director of NIFA (kindly provided by Jerry Dodgson).
o o o o o o o o o o o
A data repository was set up by the NRSP-8 Bioinformatics Team for the pig
genome research community to share data. It can be seen at
(http://www.animalgenome.org/repository/pig/).
Currently available data sets are the Illumina 60K SNP locations for build
10 contributed by Martien Groenen. Those who wish to share data, please
contact the Swine Genome Coordinator Max Rothschild
(mfrothsc@iastate.edu), or Bioinformatics Coordinator Jim Reecy
(jreecy@iastate.edu), or send an email directly to the NAGRP
Bioinformatics Team (bioinfo-team@animalgenome.org).
o o o o o o o o o o o
New publishing format for Pig Genome Update in force. Starting January 1,
2011 the Pig Genome Update will be published 4 times a year instead of 6.
Some special editions are possible. Your input and ideas are always welcome.
Please contribute.
o o o o o o o o o o o
Upcoming meetings (see:
http://www.animalgenome.org/pigs/community/meetings.html)
American Society of Animal Science and American Dairy Science joint annual
meeting, July 10-14, 2011, New Orleans, Louisiana. For details please see
http://adsa.asas.org/meetings/2011/
Swine in Biomedical Research, July 17-19, 2011, Chicago IL, for details
contact Larry Schook at schook@uiuc.edu
8th Transgenic Animal Research Conference, August 7-11, 2011, Granlibakken
Conference Center, Lake Tahoe, CA. See
http://conferences.ucdavis.edu/confreg/index.cfm?confid=521&webid=2725
4th International Symposium on Animal Functional Genomics, October 10-12,
2011. Dublin, Ireland. See http://www.isafg2011.org.
Plant & Animal Genome Conference, PAG XX, Jan. 14-18, 2012, Town & Country
Hotel, San Diego, CA. Information available at http://www.intl-pag.org/ .
Human Genome Meeting (HGM2012), March 11-14, 2012, Sydney, Australia. See
http://www.hgm2012.org
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Items for Pig Genome Update 109 can be sent to me by no later than September 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
http://www.animalgenome.org/pig/
cc: Muquarrab Qureshi, NAGRP Director, National Animal Genome Research Program, NIFA
===========================================================================
U.S. PIG GENOME COORDINATION PROJECT
+-----------------------------------+
| Supported by USDA/NIFA NRSP-8 | Web: http://www.animalgenome.org/pig
| National Animal Genome Research | Mail: angenmap@animalgenome.org
| Program |
+-----------------------------------+--------------------------------------
