The attendance of this workshop was lower than expected probably due to the concurrent workshops on wheat transformation and under-utilized wheats.

The chair started the workshop with a presentation of the proposed rules on genome symbol designations published in the Proceedings of the Second International Triticeae Symposium, June 20-24, 1994, Logan, Utah, U.S.A. These rules and recommended genome symbols are available on internet at:

http://www.biology.usu.edu/herbarium/triticeae/

Then the participants focused on the genome symbol S of the Sitopsis section of Aegilops. All agreed that A. speltoides is the species most closely related to the donor of the B genome. However, opinions differed as to whether the difference between S and B is great enough to deserve having the different genome symbols. Ultimately, the majority of participants decided that no recommendation will be made at this time to change S to B.

The chair called attention to the need: 1) to develop and use consistent criteria or measurements for genome designations and 2) to effectively communicate among scientists for proper use of genome symbols prior to publishing new symbols. He urged participants to visit the above-mentioned web-site and contact him to discuss any issues related to genome symbols.