Udda Lundqvist
Svalöf Weibull AB, SE-268 81 Svalöv, Sweden
Half a year has gone since many of us met at the Barley Genetics Symposium in Saskatoon, Canada. Several important subjects have been discussed and some decisions were made. Most important recommendations were suggested at the workshop "Barley-Wheat Chromosome Rationalization" organized by Ib Linde-Laursen, Denmark. At the business meeting of the Seventh International Barley Genetics Symposium held at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, on August 5, 1996, a resolution on the designation of the barley chromosomes and their arms, and on the selection of a reference genome in the Triticeae was passed. Each of the seven barley chromosomes is designated by a figure from 1 to 7 according to its homoeologous relationships with chromosomes of other Triticeae species. The figure is followed by the letter H (Hordeum). The chromosome arms are designated by the letters S and L. The Burnham and Hagberg (1956) designations of barley chromosomes were 1 2 3 4 5 6 and 7 while new designations based on the Triticeae system are 7H 2H 3H 4H 1H 6H and 5H respectively. Further information and details will be found in the publication as part of the report of the International Barley Genetics Symposium business meeting in this volume of Barley Genetics Newsletter.
Already in this BGN issue I tried to arrange the reports according to the new resolution and tried to encourage the coordinators to use the new chromosome designations. But as not all coordinators had the possibility to attend the meetings, both versions of reports (the old and the new designations) are found in this volume of Barley Genetics Newsletter.
The second important subject was discussed at the workshop "Barley Nomenclature" organized by Peter Shewry, United Kingdom. After the outcome of this workshop, a resolution was passed at the business meeting of the 7th International Barley Genetics Symposium held at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, on August 5, 1996. It is recommended to assign three letter locus symbols for all unsequenced genes followed by a dash and letter or number based on previous designations. Using a period between the locus allele portions of the gene symbols was recommended to replace the comma comma scheme. Existing gene symbols of less than three letters should be converted to the three letter system when symbols are revised. The introduction of three letter designations was already agreed over 20 years ago but never implemented. Further information and details will be published as part of the report of the International Barley Genetics Symposium business meeting in this volume of Barley Genetics Newsletter.
There have been several changes of the coordinators since the last Symposium in Helsingborg, 1991, and the following persons got nominated at the Seventh International Barley Genetics Symposium in Saskatoon, Canada. Lynn Dahleen, USDA-ARS, Fargo, ND, USA, will serve chromosome 7H (1) and replaces Reg Lance, Australia and D.A. Laurie, who have other commitments and do not feel to have the opportunity to follow the research in this field. J.D. Franckowiak, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA, got appointed to serve chromosome 2H. An Hang, USDA-ARS, Aberdeen, ID. USA, replaces the late T. Tsuchiya to be the present curator of the Barley Genetics Stock Center, which is moved to Aberdeen two years ago. An Hang, USA, also got appointed as coordinator for "Trisomics and aneuploid stocks" after the late T. Tsuchiya, USA. The present coordinator for "Disease and pest resistant genes", Helms Jørgensen, Denmark, is going to retire from his position during 1997, and he will be replaced by Brian Steffenson, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA, after July 1997. The "Barley Chromosome Coordinators" workshop discussed and agreed the nomination of a new coordinator for the "Integration of Barley Genetics Marker Maps". Andy Kleinhofs, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA, has been appointed to serve this integration. More details are published in a report of the workshop in this issue of Barley Genetics Newsletter. I want to take the opportunity to thank the coordinators who are passing over their work to successors, for their efforts in keeping the information up to date and providing us with annual reports.
Compiling and collecting all available information for new and revised descriptions of Barley Genes and Barley Genetics Stocks has continued during the last year and is still in progress. These descriptions are aimed to serve as basic information for the incorporation into the International Triticeae Genome Database "GrainGenes". According to the resolution passed at the business meeting of the Seventh International Barley Genetics Symposium all symbols of the gene loci are revised to the three letter system where necessary. The about 450 revised barley locus descriptions will be published in a special issue of Barley Genetics Newsletter during 1997. Then, the information will be transferred into GrainGenes by the ACEDB format.
The last linkage map prepared for the barley chromosomes by the late T. Tsuchiya was published in Barley Genetics Newsletter, volume 20 as a front cover diagram. In connection with the new or revised Barley Genetics Stock descriptions J.D. Franckowiak, North Dakota State University University, Fargo, ND, USA, constructed maps for each of the seven barley chromosomes, based on revised information for many morphological markers and other maps. Some genes associated with specific chromosomes could not be placed in the maps. They are listed in a special table. These maps and the table with the genes associated with a specific chromosome are already included into GrainGenes. They can be found under the following addresses on the Internet:
1. http://probe.nalusda.gov:8300/cgi-bin/browse/graingenes under Map_Data "Barley genes 2"
2. gopher://greengenes.cit.cornell.edu