**POULTRY GENOME NEWSLETTER** Issue No. 3, July, 1997

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

To be held Jan. 18-22, 1998, in San Diego, CA.

IT'S NOT TOO EARLY TO REGISTER!! First notice of the PAG-VI Meeting has arrived and registration is now open. Plan to arrive on Saturday, Jan. 17, as 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 on the weekend. The full NAGRP Technical Committee meeting will be Tuesday afternoon just before the Conference Dinner. PAG-VI regular presentations and posters will run from Monday the 19th through 1:20 p.m. on Thursday the 22nd. A host of outstanding speakers including Lee Hood, Grahame Bulfield, Morris Soller, Nat Bumstead, and others will present talks. Those who participated last year can attest to the excellence of the meeting (and the weather has got to be better next year). You can read all about it at http://probe.nalusda.gov:8000/otherdocs/pg/pg6/pag6.html and you can either register on-line or download the registration form at http://www.scherago.com. See you there. Hotel accomodations for PAG-VI will be limited by the fact that the Superbowl will follow us into San Diego on the weekend after the meeting. Those who wish to attend will need to get their application forms in promptly.

*Travel assistance to PAG-VI* from Coordination funds will again be available to help those who need it. Note also that the *Neal A. Jorgensen Genome Travel Awards* ($300 travel awards and complementary registration) will be presented to selected graduate student applicants (details available at the above WWW site).

*NAGRP RECEIVES USDA HONOR AWARD*

The NAGRP was awarded one of the USDA 51st Annual Honor Awards (in the Personal and Professional Excellence category) at a recent ceremony in Washington, "for development and implementation of the first structured National Animal Genome Research Program". NAGRP Leader Dick Frahm and Max Rothschild were on hand to receive the award from Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman and were also recognized at a separate CSREES ceremony. While Dick and all of the Species Coordinators were pleased to represent the NAGRP in this process, the Award belongs to all NAGRP Technical Committee members and our many other collaborators for the impressive advances in animal genomics that were being recognized.

*VISITOR FROM THE EAST ARRIVES WITH ARK*

We were pleased to have Dave Burt from the Roslin Institute visit us in East Lansing earlier this Spring. While we had the chance to "speak of many things" with Dave, it was particularly good timing so that he could demonstrate the NEW VERSION OF ChickGBASE. The new ChickGBASE is part of (along with other animals, of course) Arkdb, the new database format designed at the Roslin. Some of you may have seen the recent comments in Angenmap of Alan Archibald about PiGBASE on Arkdb ("NEW PIG GENOME DATABASE GOES LIVE", June 17) and these apply equally well to ChickGBASE. Access ChickGBASE directly at the Roslin Institute at http://www.ri.bbsrc.ac.uk/chickmap/chickgbase/chickgbase.html or link to it from the Poultry Genome Homepage (http://poultry.mph.msu.edu). The main feature of the new database is its greater flexibility in handling new data formats. If you've used ChickGBASE previously, you should have no trouble adapting to the new version, and there is extensive on-line help, especially in the Anubis (map manager) feature. Dave Burt, Alan Archibald, Chris Mungall, Jian Hu, Alison Brown, Andy Law and others at the Roslin have shown great dedication in continuing to build and improve database tools. PLEASE SEND MESSAGES OF SUPPORT AND SUGGESTIONS FOR NEW FEATURES TO THEM (connect via ChickGBASE).

NEAL JORGENSEN RETIRES!! . . . . .AND THEN DOESN'T!

Neal Jorgensen of the University of Wisconsin has been a leader in developing the NAGRP, has until recently been its Lead Administrative Advisor, and has been especially effective in arguing for broader support for animal genetics and animal science at the USDA. Neal recently announced his retirement and several of the Coordinators attended the reception and dinner in Neal's honor in Madison on May 28. We were pleased to have Dick Frahm present a plaque to Neal on behalf of the NAGRP in recognition for his service, and, as noted above, we will also be making Neal Jorgensen Graduate Student Travel Awards to PAG-VI and are hoping to have Neal there to present those awards in person.

Neal's retirement is somewhat ephemeral, however, as he continues to work on behalf of both Wisconsin and the NAGRP. Only two weeks after the retirement bash, I got a call from him asking for information to bolster his efforts with the USDA. As part of the new Farm Bill being written, there is an initiative to include an Interagency Food Genome Program proposal for the analysis of relevant plant, animal and microbial genomes. This would be a 5 year proposal to be jointly funded by NSF, DOE, and USDA, with the USDA in the lead.

GOOD LUCK, NEAL and THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR HELP.

OTHER NAGRP NEWS

Coordinators in attendance at the Jorgensen ceremony in Madison also took this chance to meet with Dick Frahm and Colin Scanes on other NAGRP business. The major item was the NRSP-8 renewal proposal. A draft has recently been assembled and distributed to the writing committee for review. A later draft will be circulated via the Angenmap email newsgroup for your review and comment. Participants will also be contacted (along with Station Directors) to indicate their levels of involvement and commitment. At a later time, we will also be asking members to contact Directors and/or other relevant parties to insure support for this effort.

The Madison meeting also provided the chance to meet with Jim Bitgood and Coordinator Emeritus Lyman Crittenden. Critt reports his somewhat delayed move to the new house being built outside Madison is now scheduled for later this summer.

**COMING SOON!! NEW LOOK FOR POULTRY GENOME HOMEPAGE**

We have recently contracted with a group of MSU students to refine, enhance and manage the Poultry Genome Homepage at http://poultry.mph.msu.edu. A draft version is presently under review and should be mounted at the above URL very soon. Take a look, and please send us your suggestions and comments. As part of this transition, Scott Eisensmith will be phasing out his service to the Homepage, with the new group (InterDream Corporation) taking over as our Web managers. Primary responsibility for the new Homepage will be with Indra Neil Sarker (sarkarin@pilot.msu.edu) and Charles Molhoek (molhoekc@pilot.msu.edu). Feel free to contact them with any feedback you may have about the Homepage.

RESOURCES AVAILABLE

CHICKEN CONSENSUS GENETIC MAP POSTER:

If you have not yet received our poster size copy of the latest version of the Consensus Chicken Genetic Map, which aligns the present East Lansing and Compton Maps and was derived by Nat Bumstead, Hans Cheng, and Lyman Crittenden, there are still copies available. If you want one, please email Hans at the address given below. The Consensus Map is also available on the Homepage (http://poultry.mph.msu.edu), but is harder to view than the full-sized version.

*FREE PRIMERS!! THE WAGENINGEN/LEICESTER KIT*

CHICKEN MICROSATELLITE PRIMER COMPREHENSIVE MAPPING KIT # 3: The third comprehensive mapping kit of fluorescently-labeled microsatellite primers is now available. This kit contains 275 new microsatellite primer pairs (beyond the 244 pairs already in Kits #1 and 2). These loci are based on new microsatellites developed by Martien Groenen (in press) of Wageningen University (MCW) and Terry Burke of the University of Leicester (LEI). These 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 has finer detail at this point than either reference map. The Wageningen map has yet to be published, but as soon as it is available, it will be posted along with the other maps on the Homepage. Information on Kit #3, along with updated microsatellite loci and map information for all published (and some unpublished) microsatellite loci will soon be posted under "Microsatellite Marker Information and Available Primer Kits". As in the past, this kit will be available free of charge to those involved in major mapping efforts. Email me (22314jbd@msu.edu) or Hans Cheng (hcheng@msu.edu) if you are interested. 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 (although it is our belief that non-commercial use of the primers is unrestricted).

This brings the number of free fluorescent chicken microsatellite primers available through the NAGRP to over 500 pairs. A small number of Chicken microsatellite primer kits #1 and #2 and our Population tester primer kit (9 highly polymorphic primer pairs for strain identification purposes)are still available..

Upcoming meetings of interest:

Poultry Science Association annual mtg., U. of Georgia, Athens, GA, August 4-8, 1997; contact: PSA., 1111 North Dunlap Avenue, Savoy, IL 61874 or http://gallus.tamu.edu/psa/psa.html/

Transgenic Animals in Agriculture, Granlibakken Conference Center, Tahoe City, CA, August 24-27, 1997; see http://pubweb.ucdavis.edu/Documents/biotech/trans_am.htm

6th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia, January 12-16, 1998. Contact: Registration: 61 67 72-9066, Fax: 61 67 72-2244, email: ozfront@tpgi.com.au; Program Info.: 61-67-73-5120, 6wcgalp@mendel.une.edu.au; Homepage: http://www.une.edu.au/~6wcgalp. Papers due July 11, 1997.

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

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

Limited assistance from coordination funds for travel support to the 6th World Congress or ISAG may be available. Email me, if interested.

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

634 Emerson St.

Madison, WI 53715

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