The Soybean Genetics Committee met from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., February 18, 2002, at the Sheraton West Port Hotel, St. Louis, MO, in conjunction with the Soybean Breeders Workshop. Elroy Cober called the meeting to order
Committee members in attendance were G. Buss, E. Cober, B. Diers, J. Orf, R. Fioritto, D. Grant, D. Lohnes, and R. Nelson. Also in attendance were Vaino Poysa, Pengyin Chen, and Prakash Arelli. The terms of Elroy Cober and Glenn Buss are expiring this year. New members elected to fill the expired terms were Vaino Poysa and Pengyin Chen. Current committee members and the February expiration date of their terms include:
D.Grant (2003) dgrant@iastate.edu
J. Tamulonis (2003) john.p.tamulonis@monsanto.com
B.Diers (2004) bdiers@uiuc.edu
J.H. Orf (2004) orfxx001@maroon.tc.umn.edu
V. Poysa (2005) poysav@em.arg.ca
P. Chen (2005) pchen@uark.edu
R.J. Fioritto (ex officio) fioritto.1@osu.edu
D.G. Lohnes (ex officio) lohnes.2@osu.edu
R.L. Nelson (ex officio) rnelson@uiuc.edu
A discussion of gene nomenclature, especially as applied to molecular markers, was led by David Grant. The current system is apparently unworkable in Soybase because it is based on the restriction enzyme used or allele information rather than a specific genetic locus. David Grant will develop a proposal for naming molecular marker loci and circulate it within the community.
One of the major functions of the Soybean Genetics Committee is to review manuscripts describing new genes for proper use of nomenclature and to review supporting data. Only one manuscript was reviewed this year - the gene symbol Rsv4 was assigned to the gene in PI 88788 for resistance to SMV (Gunduz et al.).
The Soybean Genetics Newsletter will not be editing articles for style, nor will they have links added. Authors will be encouraged to markup their articles and instructions will be provided for this purpose.
A motion (Diers/Orf) was carried which reinstates the requirement to ask for authors permission before citing articles in the Soybean Genetics Newsletter. Beginning in 1997 the policy had been changed to:
Data presented in the Soybean Genetics Newsletter may be used in publications without the consent of the respective authors unless a statement precluding use of the data accompanies the article.
We will revert to the pre-1997 statement:
Data presented in the Soybean Genetics Newsletter are not to be used in publications without the consent of the respective authors.
Brian Diers was elected chairman of the committee for the coming year. Manuscripts for committee review should be sent to him.