MINUTES OF THE WHEAT CROP GERMPLASM COMMITTEE

30 January, 2001.
New Orleans, LA, USA.

The meeting was called to order by Chair Stephen Jones, Washington State University, and a total of 18 were in attendance. Committee members present were Stephen Jones, Steven Leath, Mark Bohning (ex-officio), Gina Brown-Guedira, Bent Skovmand, John Moffatt, and Kim Garland Campbell. Noncommittee members present were Tim Murray, Jim Anderson, Bob Graybosch, Jon Raupp, Olin Anderson, Carl Griffen, Mike Davis, Jim Peterson, Yue Jin, Elias Elias, and Dave Van Sanford.

Announcements.

• The minutes were approved as published in volume 46 of the Annual Wheat Newsletter.
• A call was made for additional agenda items.
• Dr. Wesenberg is retiring from ARS. His position is advertised and there also is a need to replace Wesenberg on this committee.
• Jones will distribute materials on the collection that usually is supplied by Bockelman.
• There is a $4.3 million (3.9 construction, 0.4 planning) request by the grain community for expanding the facilities at NSGRF.
• O. Anderson reported on an NSF Plant Genome Award of $7.3 million to map 40,000 loci in wheat.
• In the 3rd year of the wheat grant, the physical map of the wheat genome is being completed.
• There is a goal of 100,000 ESTs in wheat, and we now are at 60,000.
• ITMI no longer exists and was reorganized. Wayne Powell of Scotland is the new coördinator of the project and it will be broader now and minimize overlap of research.
• Expect 68,000 ESTs in barley and 60,000 ESTs in wheat by January 2001. There are 4,000 and 8,000 ESTs now in barley and wheat, respectively.
• GrainGenes is still functioning fine, but input is always desired especially because much of the funding has been now redirected ($1.4 million). There was a motion passed to drafts letter to ARS to support GrainGenes.

Mark Bohning reported a $ 3,000,000 USD increase for germ plasm funding in the ARS budget for FY2001, much to efforts of ASTA. Bohning wants to make the GRIN interface more user friendly in the next year.

Bent Skovmand, CIMMYT. CGIAR may be redone, and a possible Federation with one central institute may be formed; other Centers will have a regional focus.

CIMMYT. Things are going well for that organization. However, Jesse Dubin was not replaced with a scientist. Paul Fox has left CIMMYT. Tom Payne is now managing the international nurseries.

• Germ plasm policy. Genetic resource issues changed with the Rio agreement on biodiversity. Germ plasm is now considered to belong to countries where it resides.
• There are concerns if collections should be returned to the originating country.
• Germ plasm collected before 1993 is conserved at the Center. There are now 155,000 accessions in CIMMYT collection, 80,000 are in the 'trust' agreement and these are freely available under MTA. CIMMYT forbids assumption of Intellectual Property rights on these lines.
• Other entries are distributed under a CIMMYT MTA for research and breeding, and these lines can be protected with CIMMYT permission. Interested parties should get copy of the CIMMYT guidelines from the CIMMYT web page.
• For free distribution of germ plasm, developing countries have 1st priority, public institutions 2nd priority, and private companies will need to negotiate for germ plasm and cost will vary.
• The FAO Commission on Plant Genetic Resources. There are 155 countries involved and no agreement has been reached after 8 years. Possibly 30 species will be exempted and 'belong' to mankind. Access and 'benefit sharing' is the main obstacle to a full agreement.
• The Iranian Collection has been shared with ARS, Aberdeen and has been evaluated for rust, Russian wheat aphid, and growth habit. This information will be put in the GRIN system.

Kim Campbell/Gina Brown Guedira. Trait evaluation priorities. Trait priorities, especially with regard to plant breeders in the west have been developed. A survey of breeders was conducted.

Priorities.

• leaf rust ­ adult plant;
• S. tritici;
• BYDV reaction;
• root rots, especially take-all; and
• S. nodorum (8,000 lines evaluated so far).

Others listed in much lower frequency. A general discussion of disease resistance and needs for evaluation was conducted.

S. Jones. The Wheat CGC report. The 1996 Update needs to be revised. After revision, we should send a draft through the NWIC for their concurrence. Jones will send out copies of 1996 version and then appoint an ad hoc committee for specific sections.

K. Campbell. Regional nurseries. These nurseries are considered as germ plasm sharing devices. Should we include lines with protected genes?

The committee discussed this and concurred with the Western Nursery guidelines, which recommend that we include these lines but all included lines can be used in crosses. Breeders must select away from genes or get an agreement with the owner. No transgenics will be allowed.

Graybosh will give coöperators a draft policy at NWIC.

Many position updates were reported.

Meeting site and schedule. The Committee wants to meet with NWIC and will partially defer to their wishes. However, this Committee wants to meet earlier in the year.

The committee needs a member from the spring wheat sector. J. Anderson nominated B. Steffenon and we will seek his agreement from the University of Minnesota.

The meeting adjourned at 9:04 p.m.