PAG-XII will be held January 10-14, 2004 at the usual location, the Town and Country Hotel, San Diego, CA. See www.intl-pag.org/. Abstracts are to be submitted electronically, deadline, Oct. 3. Registration is also available on-line at the site listed above. Fees are $475 (nonprofit)/$625 (industry) prior to Nov. 3 or $100 more thereafter. Student registration fee is $275 and weekend only (Fri-Sun, Jan 9-11) registration is $250. Questions can be directed to Scherago Int’l at 212-643-1750 x20 or email pag@scherago.com. DUE TO VISA DELAYS, THOSE TRAVELLING FROM ABROAD SHOULD BEGIN TO MAKE TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS ASAP. The new NC-1008 Multistate Research project committee that replaces NC-168 will meet concurrently, with plans to begin at noon on Saturday, January 10. Assuming it's approved, the National Animal Genome Research Program, NRSP-8, will also meet concurrently with PAG-XII.

The final FY 2003 USDA-CSREES budget was part of the 2003 Consolidated Appropriations Resolution passed by Congress earlier this year. The NRI grant program benefited from an increase to ~$160M this year (from ~$120M in 2002). Rather than use the increase to expand the general NRI grants (applications for which were already being processed or under review when the budget finally passed), CSREES added a new "NRI Integrated Program" (see http://www.reeusda.gov/1700/funding/rfanri_integrated_program_03.htm) to be funded by ~$30M. Priority in this program is given to multistate, multi-institutional and multidisciplinary applications and those that integrate research, extension and education. One of five priority programs is Functional Genomics of Agriculturally Important Organisms. The deadline for the Integrated Program is July 30. NRI has also committed $5M in FY 2003 and another $5M in 2004 to Bovine Genome Sequencing, see http://www.reeusda.gov/1700/funding/rfabovine_genome_03.htm.

Earlier issues have featured the continuing excitement over use of the chicken as a model organism, especially given the upcoming availability of the genome sequence. The latest: A special issue of Developmental Dynamics celebrating the use of the chicken and other avian models for developmental biology will appear Feb. 2004. Manuscripts should be submitted by Sept. 1, 2003, see http://dvdy-wiley.manuscriptcentral.com/.

Add ChickNET to your bookmarks: www.chicken-genome.org

The Roslin Institute and Dave Burt have established a new chicken genome web site, chickNET at www.chicken-genome.org. The site includes links to a wide variety of genomic resources, avian biology groups and societies and an excellent news/events page. Contributions of news, new sites and images are welcome and encouraged.

13^th North American Colloquium on Animal Cytogenetics and Gene Mapping, July 13-17, 2003, Louisville, KY. See http://www.uky.edu/Ag/VetScience/NACACGM/index1.html.

Transgenic Animal Research Conference IV, August 10-14, 2003, Granlibakken Resort, Lake Tahoe, California. Register at http://conferences.ucdavis.edu/transgenic

Inaugural Conservation Genetics Conference of the American Genetics Assoc., Sept. 14-17, 2003, Front Royal, Virginia. See http://congen2003.ncifcrf.gov/ for more information.

3^rd European Poultry Genetics Symposium, September 17-19, 2003, Wageningen, The Netherlands. See www.id.wageningen-ur.nl/epgs for more information.

15^th Int'l. Genome Sequencing and Analysis Conference, Sept. 21-24, 2003, Savannah, GA. See www.tigr.org/gsac for further information.

Livestock Genomes: Sequence Annotation and Informatics Challenges, October 5-7, 2003, Del Lago Resort and Conference Center on Lake Conroe between College Station and Houston, Texas. Contact person: David Adelson (david.adelson@tamu.edu), 979-845-2616.

Plant, Animal and Microbial Genome XII, joint with NC-168 and NAGRP annual meetings, Jan. 10-14, 2004, Town & Country Convention Center, San Diego, CA. See www.intl-pag.org/. More info at the top.

XXII World Poultry Conference, June 8-12, 2004, Istanbul Turkey. Email WPSA2004@WPSA2004.org. For scientific matters contact Dr. Servet Yalcin, Yalcin@ziraat.ege.edu.tr

ISAG 2004, 29^th International Conference on Animal Genetics, Sept. 11-16, 2004, Surugadai Campus, Meiji University, Tokyo, JAPAN. See http://www2.kobe-u.ac.jp/~isag2004/

Microsatellite primer kits: Information on chicken microsatellite primer pairs can be found at http://poultry.mph.msu.edu/resources/microkits.htm. A version of a framework primer kit (with 147 well-spaced microsatellite marker primer pairs) called the "Comprehensive Mapping Kit #7" is available (thanks in part to a generous donation from Hy-Line International). Our Population Tester Kit, designed for the rapid testing of the suitability of populations and/or chicken microsatellites for a given application, will soon be replenished with freshly synthesized primers. Only the Population Testeer Kit plus the Comprehensive Mapping Kit #7 are still available, as demand has waned in recent months. If interested, contact: (dodgson@.msu.edu) or (hcheng@.msu.edu), describing your desired use of primers. Once a genome sequence becomes available, the opportunity for design of new, more efficient microsatellite kits will be explored.

The chicken BAC library constructed at Texas A&M by Hongbin Zhang and colleagues, using (a female of) the UCD001 Jungle Fowl line as its DNA source, consists of over 115,000 BACs (~39,400 each in three sublibraries with BamHI, EcoRI and HindIII partial digest inserts). Filter sets with 36,864 BACs from the BamHI and HindIII sub-libraries are available at present, email 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 (for the list described below), 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, individual clones can be obtained for a fee from GENEfinder. Contact Felipe Santos at contact@bac-center.tamu.edu to purchase BACs.

As reported previously, Pieter de Jong (Children's Hospital of Oakland Research Institute) has completed a chicken BAC library with ~195 kb inserts (CHORI-261), using the same UCD001 source DNA. CHORI-261 has ~73,700 BACs for ~12x haploid genome coverage. Pieter has also generated a turkey BAC library (CHORI-260) using DNA from an inbred Nicholas Turkey Breeding Farms bird. If interested in either library and/or filter arrays, see www.chori.org/bacpac/ and access the "Detailed List of Libraries" and/or "Screening Resources". Coordination funds have been used to purchase a limited number of CHORI-261 chicken BAC filter arrays and a set can be provided on request while supplies last (see contact info and requirements above). WUGSC is fingerprinting and end-sequencing this library, as well, so we should have contig information for this library by this fall. Pieter's group has also constructed a fosmid library using the same source DNA. If interested, contact BACPAC at www.chori.org/bacpac/. If you want to isolate single genes or small linked gene families, it may be easier to use a fosmid library (inserts ~45 kb) than to have to dissect your gene from a large BAC.

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, or the UK Human Genome Mapping Project Resource Center at http://www.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk, who sell filter sets of this library.

Through efforts in my lab and those of others who've received filter sets, over 2000 BAC clones corresponding to nearly 570 different genes and markers have been identified. These are listed at http://poultry.mph.msu.edu/resources/resources.htm#bacdata. We'll be adding CHORI-261 BAC assignments to this list shortly.

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. This portion of the BAC library can be screened by a 3-dimensional strategy that requires 240 PCR reactions. We will supply limited numbers of screening arrays of aliquots of these pools on request to NRSP-8 member scientists. Alternatively, 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). (Note, some problems with reliability of these pools have been observed. More info is on our website at http://poultry.mph.msu.edu/resources/resources.htm).

The chicken BAC contig map web interface developed by Zhang and his group at Texas A&M is on-line. Fingerprint data from nearly 60,000 BACS (~20,000 from each of the three sublibraries) are included. The web site can be found at http://hbz.tamu.edu - click on "Chicken" under "Integrated Physical Maps" and scroll down to "Chicken Clone -> FPC Hitting Tool" and click. Enter the ID number of any BAC and search for overlapping BACs, based on the fingerprints. Texas A&M chicken contig building can also be monitored at this web site. As of 5/05/03, the analysis of 58,079 BAC fingerprints plus BAC assignments for 367 gene/markers generates 2331 contigs, most of which include 3 to 50 BACs each (206 contigs contain 51-100 BACs and 30 contigs contain over 100 BACs). The total size of this physical map is 1,510 Mb (1.3x), indicating that there are many additional overlaps to be discovered and contigs to be merged. Further marker-BAC assignments and BAC end sequence screens will reduce the total contig number and enlarge contig sizes. Wes Warren of WUGSC and Jan Aerts (Wageningen U.) are planning to build a physical map based on combined fingerprinting of all BAC libraries, sequence data, map and other data this Sept.