**POULTRY GENOME NEWSLETTER** Issue No. 1, January, 1998

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL READERS OF THIS NEWSLETTER! I hope that the Holiday Season is a healthy and happy one for all our readers. The Holidays will be well underway or over for some of you when you get this, while others still rush to prepare, but Best Wishes to you and your families. Hopefully, poultry will (or did) contribute in some way to your enjoyment.

PLANT AND ANIMAL GENOME VI (PAG-VI) with NAGRP/NC-168

Jan. 18-22, 1998, at the Town & Country Hotel in San Diego, CA.

I look forward to seeing many of you next month at the Plant and Animal Genome VI meeting. The NC-168 and the Poultry Species Committee of the National Animal Genome Research Program (NAGRP) will meet jointly (as usual) as a PAG-VI Workshop starting at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 17 and running through Sunday. (Check at registration for room locations.) The full NAGRP Technical Committee will meet Tuesday afternoon. PAG-VI presentations run from Monday through Thursday (Jan. 19-22). Further information can be found at the PAG-VI Web site at http://probe.nalusda.gov:8000/otherdocs/pg/pg6/pag6.html. Outstanding speakers including Lee Hood, Grahame Bulfield, Morris Soller, and Nat Bumstead, among others are on the program. Note: As advertised here and on angenmap previously, some Poultry Coordination funds are available to assist with travel costs to PAG-VI, but this must be approved in advance of the meeting. Contact Jerry Dodgson at 22314jbd@msu.edu, NOW, if interested. Finally, congratulations to Nitish Sarkar of Hiroshima University who will receive the $300 Neal A. Jorgensen Genome Travel Awards for poultry. (If possible, we hope to have Neal on hand to present the award at PAG-VI.)

NATIONAL ANIMAL GENOME RESEARCH PROGRAM (NAGRP)

PART II, THE RENEWAL

NRSP-8, the USDA cooperative National Research Support Project that supports coordination efforts of the NAGRP, ends Sept. 30, 1998. Thanks to all the many scientists who participated in putting together the Renewal Proposal, Critical Review (i.e., progress report) and Publication List, which should now be in the hands of the Station Directors. Special thanks to the writing committee consisting of the technical committee chair and secretary, all species committee chairs, and all the species coordinators. Worthy of special note are Noelle Cockett (Sheep Species Coordinator) and Shirley Riney (in Colin Scanes' Office at Iowa State) for their efforts in recruiting new members and putting together the resources table. The documents will be posted on the Poultry Genome Homepage (under the "About" button) shortly after the new year.

USDA-NRI 1998 COMPETITIVE GRANT FUNDING

Program descriptions and deadline dates for the 1998 cycle of USDA-CSREES National Research Initiative competitive grants program are available at http://www.reeusda.gov/nri/. The deadline for the "Identifying Animal Genetic Mechanisms and Gene Mapping" Program is Feb. 15, 1998. Yours truly has been roped into being Panel Manager for this Program for 1998. Although the funding rate for our program has been running below 20% for the past couple of years, I encourage you to keep those applications coming in. While the more applications we get, the more people I will have to disappoint, the size of the application pool is important in arguing for continued and expanded support levels. (Related grant program deadlines include: Animal Reproduction, Jan. 15; Animal Health, Jan. 15; and Animal Growth and Development, Feb. 15.)

FOOD GENOME INITIATIVE:

"YOU CALL IT MAIZE, WE CALL IT PORK"

While we're on the subject of USDA funding, my sources tell me that efforts are continuing to incorporate a Food Genome Initiative into authorization and funding bills for the USDA. As many of you know, a separate Corn/Plant Genome Sequencing program was funded (at ca. $40 million) by Congress last year through the National Science Foundation. While we are happy for our friends in the plant genomics community, hopefully the roles of animal breeding and genetics and of the USDA in providing food will not be overlooked. (After all, the overwhelming majority of that corn gets processed through animals before it becomes food for people.)

THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS

A couple months ago, I was asked to provide some 1997 highlights in poultry gene mapping for the upcoming NAGRP newsletter (if you're not on their mailing list and want to be, email the Editor, Sara Sunden, at sunden@uiuc.edu). A brief summary is provided below.

All chicken macrochromosomes have now been assigned on the consensus genetic map.

Bumstead and co-workers used a combined linkage/candidate gene approach, based on comparative gene maps, to identify the NRAMP1 and TNC genes as major contributors to the Salmonellosis resistance trait in chickens. (Hu et al., Genome Research 7:693-704, 1997).

Groenen and colleagues have completed a genetic linkage map using the Wageningen resource population with average marker spacing of 7 cM. Microsatellites developed in the Groenen, Cheng and Burke labs were the primary markers used in this effort.

Approximately 400 microsatellites have now been placed on the East Lansing reference map by a number of different labs.

A third comprehensive mapping microsatellite primer kit of 275 loci is now available from the Coordinators, bringing the total number of available fluorescently-labeled chicken microsatellite primer pairs to 519.

The Roslin Institute premiered the new Arkdb version of the CHICKGBASE genome mapping database (thanks to D. Burt for leading the poultry side of this effort). The database can be found at http://www.ri.bbsrc.ac.uk/chickmap/chickgbase/chickgbase.html.

PRIME THE PUMP: MICROSATELLITE PRIMER KITS

As reported previously, the 3rd comprehensive mapping kit of fluorescently-labeled chicken microsatellite primers is now available. This kit contains 275 new microsatellite primer pairs . These markers are based on new microsatellites developed by Martien Groenen (Crooijmans et al., in press) of Wageningen University (MCW loci) and Terry Burke of the University of Leicester (LEI loci). The microsatellites have been mapped by the Groenen lab on the large Euribred B.V. population and, where possible, on the East Lansing and/or Compton maps. Because of the large number of meioses tested, the resulting Wageningen map (Groenen et al.) has finer detail at this point than either the East Lansing or Compton reference maps. The Wageningen map has yet to be published but will eventually be available through the Animal Breeding and Genetics Homepage at Wageningen (www.zod.wau.nl/~www-vf). SPECIAL THANKS TO MARTIEN GROENEN FOR PROVIDING PRIMER SEQUENCES IN ADVANCE OF PUBLICATION SO THAT WE COULD DEVELOP THIS KIT. ONE CAVEAT: Some of the earlier markers in this Kit developed by the Groenen lab are the subject of patent applications by Euribred B.V. which financed the Groenen effort. Inquiries about the use of these primers should be directed to Euribred as noted in Poultry Science 75:746-754, 1996. The kit is offered with the understanding that appropriate use of potentially patented material is the responsibility of the user and not of the Poultry Coordinators

We have recently run out of the 244 primer pairs in Kits #1 and 2 and are already running low on Kit #3. The demand for Kit #3 has been unprecedented. We will soon have the remaining supplies re-aliquoted or the primers re-synthesized, where necessary, so that we can continue to provide this service. In addition, Kit #4 should be out within a couple of months. Information on all Kits is posted under "Microsatellite Marker Information and Available Primer Kits" in the "Maps and Tables" section of our Homepage (http://poultry.mph.msu.edu). Email me (22314jbd@msu.edu) or Hans Cheng (hcheng@msu.edu) if you are interested. . This brings the number of free fluorescent chicken microsatellite primers available to 519 pairs.

MORE MEETING NEWS: I CAME, I SAW, ISAG

The next meeting of the International Society for Animal Genetics will be held in Auckland, New Zealand on August 9-14, 1998 (contact details are listed below). Limited travel support will be available to NRSP-8 members. If interested, please contact us asap.

Upcoming meetings of interest:

Plant and Animal Genome VI; San Diego, CA, January 18-22, 1998; associated with National Animal Genome Research Program meeting and NC-168 Regional Research meeting. Submit abstracts and view conference info. at http://probe.nalusda.gov:8000/otherdocs/pg/pg6/pag6.html. Register on-line or download the registration form at http://www.scherago.com or contact Scherago Intl. at pag@scherago.com, tel. no.: (212) 643-1750, Fax: (212) 643-1758.

Genetically Engineering and Cloning Animals, Park City/Deer Valley, Utah, June 21-23, 1998, sponsored by the Utah State University Biotechnology Center. Info: Nancy Ashcroft, USU Biotechnology Center, Logan, Utah 84322-4700, phone: 435-797-2753, Fax: 435-797-2766, email: nancya@cscrs1.usu.edu.

International Symposium on Food-Bourne Salmonella in Poultry, Baltimore, MD, July 25-26, 1998. Info: American Association of Avian Pathologists, 382 West Street Road, KennettSquare, PA 19348-1692, Fax: 610-444-5387, email: aaap@vet.upenn.edu.

Poultry Science Association, Penn State University, August 3-7, 1998; contact: Poultry Science Association, 1111 North Dunlap Avenue, Savoy, IL 61874 or http://gallus.tamu.edu/psa/psa.html/

International Society for Animal Genetics, Auckland, New Zealand, August 9-14, 1998. Conference info: Ian Anderson, 64-6-356-9099 x7261, Fax: 64-6-350-5621, ebtu@manawatu.gen.nz; Program inquiries: Tom Broad, 64-3-489-3809, Fax: 64-3-489-9308, broad@agresearch.cri.nz; http://www.wisc.edu/animalsci/isag/index.html

Fourth Global Conference on Conservation of Domestic Animal Genetic Resources, Birendra International Convention Centre, Baneswar, Kathmandu, Nepal, August 17-21, 1998. Info: RBI NEPAL '98 Kathmandu Conference Secretariat, c/o Dr. Nanda Prasad Shrestha, Nepal Agricultural Research Council, P.O. Box 1950, Kathmandu, Nepal, phone: 977-1-523160, Fax: 977-1-521197, email: biodiversity@narcanbd.wlink.comp.np.

PUT YOUR ITEM OF INTEREST HERE

We are always happy to include items of general interest to the poultry genetics community in the Poultry Genome Newsletter. Please email your contributions to us at the addresses below. Please send any items by March 15, 1998 to be sure it gets into the next issue.

Addresses:

Jerry Dodgson, Poultry Coordinator; email: 22314jbd@msu.edu

Dept. of Microbiology, Giltner Hall

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI 48824

Lyman Crittenden, Coordinator Emeritus.; email: crittend@itis.com

8550 Highway 19

Cross Plains, WI 53528-9300

Hans Cheng, Co-Coord.

ADOL

USDA-ARS

3606 E. Mt. Hope Ave.

East Lansing, MI 48823

email: hcheng@pilot.msu.edu

Supported by Regional Research Funds, Hatch Act, to the

National Research Service Program: NRSP-8.

National Animal Genome Research Program, Richard Frahm, Director, CSREES