Prepared by Kim Hummer & Joseph Postman
(Our unabridged, 30 page report complete with glossy colour pictures and circles and arrows and paragraphs can be found at: http://www.ars-grin.gov/cor/news/AnnualReport2005.pdf )1. The Repository received 145 new accessions during 2005. The total inventory increased by 989, which included new on-site back-up forms for primary inventory items. We loaded 4,401 images for Actinidia, Fragaria, Rubus, Ribes, Vaccinium, Pyrus and Juglans plants, flowers or fruits.
2. For the third year in a row, Bruce Bartlett, Plant Distribution Manager, broke records for distribution, shipping 4,640 items for 503 requests around the world. This is the largest number of accessions distributed in one year from the Corvallis Repository since establishment in 1981.
3. The Repository hosted two meetings this past year: the 56th annual Western Pest and Disease Conference on 11 and 12 January 2005, at Timberline Lodge, Government Camp, Oregon; and a workshop for clonal curators in the National Plant Germplasm System held at the Corvallis Repository on 2-3 October. More than 40 individuals attended from NPGS gene banks in Brownwood (2 people), Corvallis (17), Davis (5), Hilo (4), Geneva (6), Fort Collins (2), and Riverside (4). We had productive discussions and hands-on technology exchanges on computer and database issues, screenhouse and field collection management, in vitro and cryogenic methods, and molecular evaluations. A joint publication of clonal activities to was prepared for submission to HortScience as a result of this meeting.
4. Joseph Postman and his staff evaluated and documented information concerning the pear field collection. A long, rainy spring season resulted in very high fungal disease incidence and provided an opportunity to add useful data to ongoing evaluations for pear leaf scab, fruit scab and Fabraea leaf spot. A large number of accessions were identified as either highly resistant or highly susceptible to these diseases. In September and October, more than 1000 fruit photographs were taken and loaded to GRIN as image vouchers.
5. The tissue culture lab provided in vitro materials for core collection cryopreservation to NCGRP - Ft. Collins. These materials will provide a cryogenic backup for our collections. At present the mint core is cryostored as are parts of the Pyrus, Ribes, Humulus, Fragaria, and Rubus core collections. We are collaborating with NCGRP on the cryostorage of these collections.
1. Barbara Reed and graduate student Hailu Aynalem developed a computer analysis technique to screen in vitro-stored cultures. The results correlated well with our standard visual screening method but is not practical for direct use at this time. Dr. Reed and visiting scientist Dr. Sandhya Gupta optimized vitrification and encapsulation cryopreservation protocols for several accessions of Rubus. These protocols, in addition to the slow-cooling protocol already in place, provide several options for cryostorage of the Rubus collection.
2. Nahla Bassil and her laboratory team developed 51 additional EST-SSR markers in Fragaria: 37 from ‘Strawberry Festival’, in collaboration with Kevin Folta and Kim Lewers, and 14 from ‘Yellow Wonder’ in collaboration with Janet Slovin. In blueberry, Nahla Bassil and Peter Boches, her graduate student, developed SSR fingerprints for 69 important blueberry cultivars using 31 SSR loci, and uploaded the results for 54 cultivars using 25 SSRs to GRIN at http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgibin/npgs/html/eval.pl?492824
3. Kim Hummer and Nahla Bassil collaborated with Ing. Jose Mota, Isabel Arnas and other scientists in the Azores, under an Azores Cooperative Initiatives Grant. Samples of unknown apple and pear cultivars growing in the Azores were sent for molecular marker analysis to compare to known, standard Portuguese and American cultivars. The Repository laboratory identified eight sets of synonyms in 18 apple and 9 pear genotypes grown in the Azores using 11 microsatellite markers from both genera.
4. Joseph Postman, in collaboration with Nahla Bassil, implemented phytoplasma testing protocols for repository genera. They evaluated two sets of primers for nested PCR and examined suspected phytoplasma infected clones in Corylus, Fragaria, Pyrus, and Vaccinium to verify their usefulness as positive controls. They conducted trials for appropriate sampling date, tissue source and effectiveness of universal primers. Universal primers P1/P7 for initial PCR and R16F2n/R16R2 for the nested reaction worked well for all samples except Vaccinium. They obtained good results with appropriate size bands for hazelnut stunt, strawberry multiplier, strawberry greenpetal, strawberry fruit phylloidy, pear decline, and cranberry falseblossom). Sampling dates after mid-September were best. Leaf petioles were the tissue of choice. Super-core strawberry collection was assayed (48 clones) and nearly half tested positive for phytoplasmas.