Tentative Agenda
Clover and Special Purpose Legumes Crop Germplasm Committee
Sunday, November 12, 2006,  1:30- 4:00 PM
Marriott, Austin-Boston, Second Floor
Indianapolis, Indiana

 

  1. Introductions and announcements.  Those in attendance introduced themselves at the meeting.

    2. Michael Peel USDA-ARS Logan, UT mpeel@cc.usu.edu
    Ann Blount University of Florida paspalum@ufl.edu
    Mark Bohning USDA-ARS Beltsville, MD mbohning@ars-grin.gov
    Gary Pederson USDA-ARS Griffin, GA       gpederson@ars-grin.gov
    Healthcliffe Riday                      USDA-ARS Madison, WI riday@wisc.edu
    Brad Morris USDA-ARS Griffin, GA bmorris@ars-grin.gov
    David Brenner USDA-ARS Ames, IA dbrenne@iastate.edu
    Gerald (Ray) Smith Texas A & M g-smith@tamu.edu
    Ken Quesenberry University of Florida clover@ifas.ufl.edu
    Norman Taylor University of Kentucky nltaylor@uky.edu
    Candice Gardner USDA-ARS Ames, IA  gardnerc@iastate.edu
    Brad Venuto USDA-ARS El Reno, NV bvenuto@grl.ars.edu.gov
    Tom Devine USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD Thomas.Devine@ars.udsa.gov
    Jorge Mosjidis (Chair) Auburn University mosjija@auburn.edu
    Nancy Ehlke (secretary) University of Minnesota   nancy@umn.edu

  2. Agenda additions and approval of agenda.  Ken Quesenberry made a motion to approve the agenda, it was seconded by Ray Smith.  Agenda was unanimously approved. 
     
  3. Approval of minutes of November 6, 2005 meeting – approved minutes by committee by email vote in February 2006 and are posted on the web.

  4. Chairman's report – Jorge Mosjidis attended CGC chair in Ames, IA.  This CGC has been timely in doing assigned tasks.  Jorge welcomed Healthcliff Riday as a new member of the CGC replacing Mike Casler.  The CGC needs to pay attention to staffing at the Germplasm Collections and the resources available.  The CGC is concerned about the hiring of an investigator in Category 1 to lead the group at Prosser, WA, comparable positions are Category 4 at other locations.  A discussion was held about bringing seed into the USA in small quantities by permit, Mark Bohning will follow up on this issue.  Crop Science is concerned about quality rankings because of the publishing of crop registrations.  Journal impact factors take into account the rejection rate and number of times an article is cited during the first two years of publication.  Impact factors are important statistics to libraries making decisions about which journals to subscribe to and library subscriptions are a major financial revenue stream for ASA and CSSA.  The journal is the highest financial generating publication of ASA but suffers with impact factor estimates due to the registration articles all being accepted and the citations during the previous two years which means these articles don’t get cited during the first two years.  The recommendation is to separate crop registration articles from Crop Science and publish in a separate journal bundled with Crop Science.   This issue will be discussed at the CSSA division meetings and board meetings during this annual meeting.  The chair recommend that states send plant breeding representatives to the meeting at a national workshop held on February 8 and 9, 2007 in Raleigh, NC.  “Plant breeding: A vital capacity for U.S. national goals” http://www.plantbreedingworkshop.ncsu.edu  It is organized by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), USDA; and The Departments of Crop Science and Horticultural Sciences, North Carolina State University.   



  5.  Old business
    1. Report on germplasm collecting activities in 2006  - N. Taylor – limited, collaborate with group on collecting Rhizobium of eastern USA species
    2. Report on Western Rhizobium collection trip - K. Quesenberry excellent, hard working collection trip, currently the rhizobium samples are being processed by cooperators in Uruguay, and the seed samples have been processed in Florida with representative samples currently being grown out for species verification, after which time the seed will be distributed to Uruguay, Australia and USDA NPGS.  The team members were able to Rhizobium from most Trifolium species encountered. 
    3. Planning of collection trip to Italy and Greece – S. Greene/ G. Peterson – still thinking about trip, not currently planned.  Greece would be a good location, trip probably won’t happen in the near future.  Recommend talking to R.R. Smith since he has been on a previous collection trip in the area.
    4. Effort with alfalfa CGC to obtain germplasm evaluation funding – B. Ocumpaugh/Ray Smith – no report today, issue will be pursued.
    5. Report on the transfer of the Collection of Tropical Species at Ona, FL to Griffin, GA - K. Quesenberry – Station Director at Ona, FL did not want to send forage germplasm until after filling of forage agronomist replacement position. The position was hired, but due to death of another scientist at the station, the forage agronomist position has greatly expanded so the issue hasn’t been addressed yet.  When the second position is refilled, Ken Quesenberry will pursue this issue. 
  1. New Business
    1. Next meeting - CSSA meeting in New Orleans, LA, November 4-8 Sunday afternoon at 3:00 pm – unanimous vote of the CGC committee members
    2. Newly planned germplasm collections - Any member – encouraged members of CGC to pursue collections
    3. Participation (funding) in the Multistate Research Project, SCC80, "Plant Breeding".  (see chair’s report)
    4. GRIN – separation of CLOVER information into species – The CGC suggests the GRIN system should try to improve its search capability to allow specific species, year of collection, and other more specific traits to make the system more useful and easier to use by scientists. 
    5. Discussion of Ellison, N. W. et al. paper that revises the taxonomy of Trifolium and implications for GRIN. [Molecular phylogenetics of the clover genus (Trifolium - Leguminosae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 2006. 39: 3, 688-705] – excellent attempt to correct some of the problems with the current classification of the Trifolium species.  The CGC can make a recommendation to GRIN to use this as the accepted taxonomy for this genus.  Since the article is published in a journal that is not a traditional taxonomy journal, the potential exists that the taxonomists won’t accept these recommendations.  The molecular work in being supported by research on interspecific crosses between species that are proposed to be related in this paper.  The main thrust of the article is reclassifying the relatedness of species and not the reidentification of most of the Trifolium species.  Ken Quesenberry made a motion to make the taxonomy from this paper as the taxonomy for Trifoium in GRIN, seconded by Ray Smith, and voted unanimously in favor by the committee.  The chair will draft a letter to inform GRIN of this recommendation to adopt the new section and subsection recommendations into the system.
    6. Cleaning up of GRIF and W9 (G) numbers in the system – Gary Pederson took care of the GRIF numbers after the last meeting - 30 GRIF numbers, 17 have been PI ed, 1 was dead, only 12 GRIF numbers left, 7 currently in increase and 5 will be increased later. W9 (G) numbers have about 150 that are duplicates of seed received at Fort Collins, CO, so Stephanie will determine which are the better seed lots in the system and have them PI ed, there are about 50 other G numbers have been increased and will be PI ed, and there are 28 cultivars that will be PI ed if they are not duplicated in the GRIN system.  The CGC encourages the curators to evaluate those collections for potential seed increase and entrance into the PI system.   On the flip side, many curators have inherited seed lots without enough information to know their value before they can determine if it is appropriate to assign PI numbers. 
    7. Plans for seed increase of unavailable lines by the curators – covered in the previous discussion (6.f.)
    8. Replacement of B. Ocumpaugh -  Bill Ocumpaugh recommends finding a replacement for him on the CGC since he is retiring.  Suggestions for new members should be made to the chair 
  1. Reports from NPGS/GRIN staff – Mark Bohning – Research Leader has retired (Allen Stoner) and timetable is uncertain at the USDA-ARS Beltville due to tight finances.  (See the NGLR/PER report to PGOC, RTACs and CDCs 2006.)  National Program 301 is starting on its second 5 year cycle after a review.  The recommendations of the review were to work on the public GRIN program to improved download capabilities and search capabilities.  They are encouraging the CGCs to make recommendations to make GRIN more user friendly.  GRIN also needs to be able to better handle the molecular data that is increasingly becoming more available when the molecular data doesn’t already have a separate database in existence.  The number one priority for the NPGS is making GRIN much better and assessable to scientists and the public during the next 5 years and may want to have a public awareness campaign.
 
  1. Curator Reports -Distributed by email
    1. Pullman/Prosser, Washington (Clarice Coyne, Stephanie Greene and Barbara Hellier) – report indicated tight funding especially at Prosser, WA but all the sites are struggling financially
    2. Griffin, Georgia  (Gary Pederson, Brad Morris) – Brad Morris (see reports) increased 194 accessions in FY2005 and attempted regenerating 254 accessions in FY2006.  Gary Pederson – doing many increases at Westbrook/Byron location because of better seed production.  Gary will continue doing increases of species listed in his report and the short day African species in the greenhouse.  The Farm manager has retired resulting in a loss of  historical knowledge and expertise.  CGC would like to see digital species of unusual species in bloom if possible. 
    3. Ames, Iowa (David Brenner) - report on email:  Is sweet clover for biomass a good idea?  Any interest for pursuing this area of research? 
    4. Lexington, Kentucky (Norm Taylor) - primarily concentrate on the African clovers in the future. 
  1. Adjourn:  3:36 pm