2008 Soybean Genetics Committee Annual Meeting
18 February 2008
Sheraton Westport, Maryland Heights (St. Louis), MO
Committee Members:
David Walker (2007 Chair; USDA-ARS, Urbana, IL)
Vince Pantalone (Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN) [unable to attend meeting]
Rouf Mian (USDA-ARS, Wooster, OH)
Jim Narvel (Monsanto Co., Galena, MD)
David Sleper (Univ. of Missouri - Columbia, MO)
Bill Schapaugh (Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS)
Gary Stacey (new member; Univ. of Missouri - Columbia, MO) [unable to attend meeting]
David Hyten (new member; USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD)
Randy Nelson (ex-officio; USDA-ARS, Urbana, IL)
David Grant (ex-officio; USDA-ARS, Ames, IA)
Cases Reviewed by the SGC in 2007:
1. The SGC approved a request by Brian Diers to name a gene for resistance to alfalfa mosaic virus Rav1
2. The SGC approved Maria Monteros' request for confirmation status to be granted to six QTL associated with oleic acid content. These QTL were named cqOle-001 through cqOle-006.
3. John Rupe's request to name a gene for resistance to Pythium aphanidermatum Rpa1 was approved by the committee.
4. The SGC reviewed a request from Eberson Calvo to name several soybean rust resistance genes that had been mapped and reported in a manuscript by Garcia et al.:
a) One on LG J of PI 230970 (probably Rpp2)
b) One on LG G of PI 459025 (probably Rpp4)
The authors refrained from claiming that these genes were Rpp2 and Rpp4 because they had not used the same isolate as had been used when these genes were originally reported. The authors originally proposed to include the name of the linkage group in the gene name, but the SGC recommended following the respective gene name with '[tentative]'. (For example, Rpp2[tentative].
A novel soybean rust resistance locus on LG N was also reported in the Garcia et al. manuscript. This locus was detected in three different PIs, so the SGC considered the data to be sufficient to recommend assigning the name Rpp5 to this new locus.
5. The case of David Lightfoot and his SIU colleagues' longstanding request to recognize three SDS resistance QTL was discussed. This case had originally been submitted prior to February 2007, but had never been resolved. The initial claim had been rejected by the SGC, but with a request to Dr. Lightfoot for additional information to support it. Additional data and explanations were submitted, but inconsistencies among molecular maps and the low resolution of some maps made it difficult to determine whether there is more likely to be one or two SDS resistance QTL near the top of LG G. (The SIU group claimed to have sufficient evidence to show that there were two.) This group also claimed to have confirmed a third QTL on LG C2.
As the SGC was unable to reach a consensus on how to reply at the time of the meeting, a motion was made and passed to review the data again, and to announce a decision within six weeks of the date of the meeting.
Other Topics of Discussion:
1. David Hyten and Gary Stacey were confirmed as new members of the Soybean Genetics Committee.
2. Terms were to expire for Vince Pantalone and David Walker, but due to inability of either Rouf Mian or Jim Narvel to commit sufficient time to serve as the sole Chair, David Walker agreed to stay on as a co-Chair.
3. Rouf Mian and David Walker were approved as co-Chairs.
4. David Grant presented an update on the Soybean Breeder's Toolbox and led a discussion of topics related to it:
Dr. Grant and his assistants had been working on integration of the most recent consensus genetic map (from 2007) with the previous (2003) map of Song et al. They had also been developing ideas about how to integrate sequence data from the Joint Genome Initiative (JGI) project with the genetic maps of SoyBase.
Future plans: (1) Add all mapped QTLs to the 2003 map, but make it easy for users to move between the 2003 and 2007 maps using common markers as reference points. (2) As sequence data are released by the JGI project, these will be added to the database. The physical map will contain a subset of markers to allow users to orient themselves when moving between maps.
5. David Walker proposed making the SGC more international to gain/retain more credibility and recognition outside of North America. A suggestion was made to look up the original bylaws in the Soybean Genetics Newsletter to find out whether there any rules that pertained to this action. Another suggestion was made to expand the size of the committee as an alternative to replacing North American members with members from other continents.
6. David Sleper suggested considering the use of conference calls to improve discussion of cases being considered by the SGC.