NRSP-8: For better or for worse, this is also the year to write the renewal proposal for NRSP-8! The new objectives will focus on 1. Mapping and comparative genomics as they lead to the development and use of full genome sequences; 2. Functional genomics; and 3. Informatics. Cathy Ernst will coordinate the overall writing team. Draft proposals will be circulated and revised over the summer with E-1 (effort) forms collected from Stations by October. The final and complete proposal must be submitted to Area Administrators by Dec. 1, 2002. More information is available at http://www.wisc.edu/ncra/manual.htm.

Subsequently, the NIH issued a request for "White Papers" proposing to sequence animal genomes that would be of general interest to NIH-supported scientists. A proposal to sequence the chicken genome was submitted for the Feb. 10, 2002 deadline. The proposal, composed by John McPherson (Washington U. Genome Center), Robb Krumlauf (Stowers Institute), Olivier Pourquié (soon to join the Stowers Institute) and myself will be posted under "Information" at http://poultry.mph.msu.edu and is available on request. Thanks go to the many poultry biologists who sent emails of support for our proposal! Although I don't have final confirmation, I've learned informally that NIH has accepted our proposal and intends to support approximately a 6X coverage of the chicken genome sequence. My present understanding is that sequencers will use libraries (BAC and otherwise) made from the UCD001 inbred line that is also one of the two parents of the East Lansing mapping panel. The extent to which the NIH and BGI/EU efforts interface remains to be determined.

Just received is the 2000-2001 Annual Report of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh. As always, this is an informative and beautifully prepared volume, something that can be used in classes as well as for one's own information. If you'd like your own copy, go to www.roslin.ac.uk

GREAT-EST DATA: The opportunities for chicken microarrays have been enhanced by the availability (announced last issue) of the chicken expressed sequence tags (ESTs) generated by the European Union consortium (especially, U. of Manchester Inst. of Science and Technology, U. of Nottingham, U. of Dundee, and the Roslin Institute) collaboration with Incyte Genomics (www.chick.umist.ac.uk). Check out this site for information on your gene of interest (and some great chicken graphics).

SECOND GENERATION ARRAY IN PLANNING: At the suggestion of Paul Neiman, a group including Joan Burnside and Robin Morgan, among others at Delaware, and the poultry coordinators are planning the development of a second generation, more general, 10K spot glass slide microarray. Favorable prices for printing such arrays have been offered by the FHCRC facility. Financial contributions from the group would go towards purchasing the necessary cDNA clones and generating the PCR products to be spotted. Copies of the glass slide arrays would be available to the general public at a reasonable fee that would support continued printing of the arrays, depending on overall demand. We hope that these would be available by at least the end of 2002. Indications of interest can be emailed to Paul (pneiman@fred.fhcrc.org).

Microsatellite primer kits: Information on microsatellite primer pairs can be found at http://poultry.mph.msu.edu/resources/microkits.htm. A new version of a framework primer kit (with 147 well-spaced microsatellite marker primer pairs) called the "Comprehensive Mapping Kit #7" is now available (thanks in part to a generous donation from Hy-Line International). Due to our limited budget (and the cost of the Marshfield microsatellite patent), we now can supply only our Population Tester Kit (9 highly polymorphic microsatellite markers for strain identification, gene flow studies or testing in other birds [not usually recommended]) or the new Comprehensive Mapping Kit #7. If interested, contact: (dodgson@.msu.edu) or (hcheng@.msu.edu), describing your desired application.

Gene primers: (Reminder) Two sets of PCR primer pairs (300 primer pairs corresponding to 300 chicken genes) complementary to chicken mRNAs are still available. In each case, a likely primer pair for PCR was derived based on DNA sequence data (mostly cDNA sequences, so they should be used for RT-PCR). See "Chicken Gene Primers #1 and #2" under "Resources" (scroll down) at http://poultry.mph.msu.edu.

43^rd Short Course in Medical and Experimental Mammalian Genetics, July 15-26, 2002, Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine. See www.jax.org/courses/ for more info.

Poultry Science Association Annual Meeting, August 11-14, 2002, University of Delaware, Newark, DE. See www.poultryscience.org for more information.

International Society of Animal Genetics, Göttingen, Germany, August 11-15, 2002. See http://www.gwdg.de/~bbrenig/ISAG2002.html for further information.

2^nd Symposium on Candidate Genes for Animal Health, August 16-18, Montpellier, France. Information at http://cgah.cirad.fr

7^th World Congress of Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, August 19-23, 2002, Montpellier, France. See http://www.wcgalp.org for more information.

11^th European Poultry Conference, September 6-10, 2002, Bremen, Germany. See www.epc2002.de for further information.

International Workshop on Experimental Models from the Bursa of Fabricius, October 4-6, 2002, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA. See www.fhcrc.org/events/scientific/bursa for more information.

Plant, Animal and Microbial Genome XI, joint with NC-168 and NAGRP annual meetings, Jan. 11-15, 2003, Town & Country Convention Center, San Diego, CA. More information above and/or see www.intl-pag.org/.

The chicken BAC library constructed at Texas A&M, using the UCD001 Jungle Fowl line as its DNA source, now consists of over 115,000 BACs (~39,400 each with BamHI, EcoRI and HindIII partial digest inserts to insure complete coverage of the genome). Filter sets with 36,864 BACs from each of the three sub-libraries have recently been obtained and are available. If interested, email me at dodgson@msu.edu. A requirement for receiving a free filter set is that the user agree to provide the name of the probe used and clone locations at a later date, so all users can benefit from coordination resources. Alternatively, filter sets can be obtained directly from GENEfinder Genomic Resources (http://hbz.tamu.edu) at the cost of preparing them. In either case, once your clone of interest is identified by hybridization, individual clones can be obtained at cost from GENEfinder. Contact Felipe Santos, at contact@bac-center.tamu.edu, to request individual BAC clones.

For those wishing to use PCR rather than filter hybridization to screen for your gene(s) of interest, Research Genetics has prepared PCR-ready, superplate, column, and row DNA pools of 30,000 BamHI BACs (the same collection offered on our first BAC filter sets). Thus, this portion of the BAC library can be screened by a 3-dimensional strategy that requires 240 PCR reactions. Unfortunately, Research Genetics defaulted on our plans to make panels of these pools available for purchase directly from them. Thus, we will supply limited numbers of screening arrays of aliquots of these pools on request to NRSP-8 member scientists. Alternatively, we hope to set up routine screening of the pools here at ADOL, and it may be possible to include your gene/probe of interest if you send us your PCR primers. If interested, please contact Hans Cheng (hcheng@.msu.edu). A more detailed description of the pools is on our website at (http://poultry.mph.msu.edu/resources/resources.htm).

A preliminary version of the chicken BAC contig map web interface has been put on line by Hongbin Zhang and his group at Texas A&M. To date, only data from the EcoRI BACs have been entered, but we hope soon to include HindIII and then BamHI BACs. Fingerprint data from these BACs are still being computer processed and editted. The web site can be found at http://hbz.tamu.edu - click on Physical Mapping - then on Chicken Map (on the left) - scroll down to "Chicken Clone -> FPC Hitting Tool" and click. Enter the ID number of any EcoRI BAC and search for overlapping BACs, based on the fingerprint data. More information will be sent when fingerprinting is complete and the site is fully functional. Meanwhile, John McPherson of the Washington U. Human Genome Center is fingerprinting the complete UCD001 BAC library in preparation for the chicken genome sequencing effort described above.

Martien Groenen and Richard Crooijmans have also constructed a BAC library in collaboration with Texas A&M (Crooijmans et al., Mammalian Genome 11: 360-363, 2000). For more information, see www.zod.wau.nl/vf. If you wish to purchase or use the Groenen-Crooijmans library, either contact www.zod.wau.nl/abg/hs/research/molecular/intro.html, the UK Human Genome Mapping Project Resource Center at http://www.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk, who sell filter sets of this library, or GENEfinder Genomic Resources (http://hbz.tamu.edu).

NHGRI at NIH is setting up a BAC Resource Network that is issuing a call for requests to prepare new BAC libraries for species for which there is currently no BAC library or for which a new library is needed. For additional info, contact Jane Peterson at jane_peterson@nih.gov.

email: dodgson@msu.edu

email: hcheng@msu.edu