I. 5. Comments for the Proposal from Aberdeen Meeting.
Hagberg, A. Swedish Seed Association, Svalof, Sweden, and D. von Wettstein, Institute of Genetics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
We have read the proposals from your August meeting to be published in the Barley Genetics Newsletter and would like to offer the following comments:
page 1: After the last sentence should be added: Dr. T. Tsuchiya has been appointed to succeed Dr. Robertson as chairman of the committee.
page 4:
Rule 1. We suggest the proposal to read: English and Latin should be
considered as languages of higher internationality.
We feel strongly that descriptive names in English and Latin
are equally acceptable. This is practised for example in tomato genetics
without any difficulty. Your proposal is violated by your suggestion on
p. 12, that genes for disease resistance should be symbolized by the Latin
genus and species name of the parasite in question. p. 13: Gb should be
Tg (from Latin name) as greenbug in other parts of the world may be quite
another species - there are lots of different "greenbugs".
Rule 2. We suggest the proposal to read: The original name should be as descriptive as possible of the primary effect of the hereditary factor. Well established symbols should as far as possible be preserved. New symbols should be triple letters, since they are easier to memorize and recognize.
alb for albino is easier to recognize than a
yel for yellow is easier to recognize than y
gam for gametophyte is easier to recognize than ga
Rule 3. Comment: What to do with a mutant that has pleiotropic effect: in one character the mutant allele is dominant, in another it is recessive (e.g. ert-r52)? It should be recommended not to include dominance in the general symbol. It could be indicated by using large resp. small letters in describing any special case of segregation, but each allele should be indicated by letter of number.
Rule 4. We suggest the proposal to read: No change.
Our computers and also those e.g. of NIH in Washington handle super-
and subscripts as well as hyphens without trouble. There is thus no reason
not to adhere to the international rule. Anybody is free to put his allele
numbers on the same line according to rule 7, if he prefers that.
Rule 5. We suggest the proposal to read: No change.
A designation for the wild type alleles is necessary. Ga+
or ds+ for wild type is preferable to ga and Ds. The use of
green vs., normal vs. etc. for wild type should be discontinued. It is
not used in maize, and its deletion would save space in the Newsletter
and other publications.
Rule 6. We suggest the proposal to read: No change.
In any work with large numbers of polymeric gene mutants, every mutant
has to be given at the moment of isolation a designation not shared by
any other mutant of this polymeric group. This designation is preferably
a number and the number should be retained as allele number. The locus
has then to be identified by a letter. This system has been used to great
advantage with the ert, cer, ari, mat, xan,
alb and other mutants. Since it is out of the question to resymbolize
the about 1500 mutants in these groups the acceptance of your limited proposal
under 6 would mean that it will not be adhered to by many scientists working
with these mutants. Since scientists working with the other symbolization
system e.g. ms 1, 2, 3 etc. - which also conforms to the international
rules - would not like to resymbolize their mutants, we propose that both
systems are recommended in agreement with the international rules. The
committee for assigning sumbols should decide from case to case which system
is best employed for a particular group of polymeric genes.
page 5:
Rule 7. We suggest the proposal to read: No change.
Your proposal is in conflict with the international rule 11. A slash
is used to indicate a fraction in a genic formula.
page 6:
Rule 14. We suggest the proposal to read: No change.
Your proposal is in conflict with the international rule 11. A slash
cannot be used.
under c. We suggest to add: Photographs or line drawings of the mutant phenotype as part of the description are appreciated.
under e. We suggest to eliminate this paragraph. We cannot submit slides or drawings of our ca. 3000 mutants.
page 7:
first sentence: We suggest this sentence be deleted.
Everybody will gladly send his stocks to the genetic stock center.
But it is important that symbols and numbers can be assigned to research
workers even before seeds have been sent to the stock center. It happens
often that results on a mutant are published before sufficient seeds have
been obtained to establish a stock. It is further advantageous, if symbols
and allele numbers can be reserved in advance for a group of workers or
coordinators, dealing with large numbers of polymeric genes. Unless this
is done to a certain extent, a revision of barley gene nomenclature becomes
impractical.
pages 9-10: We find that the system suggested for disease resistance should be further discussed. There are many different possibilities that should be considered. Scientists working with disease resistance genes should by letter confer and agree on a system, which then should be proposed to the Committee for Assigning Symbols.
For our large series of chlorophyll mutants we have used the symbols xan-a to xan-r for 18 loci identified in the xantha group and the symbol alb for 31 loci identified in the albina group. We have almost completed the identification of 70 loci in the viridis, tigrina, zonata, alboviridis groups. A survey of the results will appear in February 1971 and a monograph on the xantha and albina mutants is being written presently. After the completion of the monograph the revision of the nomenclature should be discussed. It will be necessary to establish the identity of loci between the mapped classical mutants and the newly identified genes, before any changes of symbols can be proposed in the chlorophyll mutant group. We will commence the identification work this summer.
With regard to the suggested changes we would like to propose the following procedure for publication in the first issue of the Barley Genetics Newsletter. Three items are published:
1) The report of the committee on genetic marker stocks and gene symbols given by D. W. Robertson and D. von Wettstein at the Second International Barley Genetics Symposium, Pullman, Wash. 1969.
2) Proposals of the Aberdeen, Idaho Meeting (preferably in an abbreviated form).
3) Recommendations by the International Committee for Assigning Barley Gene Symbols, based on the proposals in report 3) and 4).
We have prepared a draft for document 3), which - if agreed upon by the other members of the Committee for Assigning Symbols - could serve as guide lines until further revisions are recommended.