The 27th meeting of the Rice Crop Germplasm Committee met Wednesday 14 February 2007 at Memphis, Tennessee. Members in attendance were James Gibbons, Chair, Karen Moldenhauer, Farmin Jodari, Dwight Kanter, Jim Oard, Billie Woodruff, Georgia Eizenga, Harold Bockelman, Clarissa Maroon-Lango, Wengui Yan, and Anna McClung. Minutes were read and approved by a motion from Moldenhauer and second by Eizenga. Mark Bohning was unable to attend but provided his report by e-mail. In summary: 1) GRIN needs to handle molecular data being generated on NPGS accessions and also needs to interact with the genome databases 2) The GRIN public interface needs to be re-written 3) We are still working with the international community (IPGRI, CG Centers, Europe) to develop a method to allow searches across databases, and 4) The NGRL Research Leader position has not been filled at this time but the plan is to have someone on board soon. Oard commented on the difficulty in moving between the interface of Gramene and GRIN. Gramene advisory board, of which McClung and Oard are members, was to meet in June so could present concerns with Gramene at the meeting. One problem is GRIN is based on accessions not mapping populations. Bockelman discussed options to combine GRIN and Gramene but none are available at this time.
Report of Maroon-Lango handed out. She is trying to get 250 accessions/year through quarantine process. Of the 210 introductions done this past year, 199 processed and shipped to NSGC at present. Attempt to process clonal material of wild species from IRRI was unsuccessful first time, but will try again. Still have backlog from Japan, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Bishwajit Prasad (post doc at DB NRRC) was to look at list to weed out red bran and/or photo-sensitive materials. Motion made and seconded by Moldenhauer and Oard for him to look at list and prioritize.
McClung gave report on USDA-ARS delegation which included Kay Simmonds, National program Staff for small grains, to set up collaboration with China for germplasm exchange. Yulin Jia from DB NRRC was also on the trip. It was indicated that probably best way to exchange is to set up a true research collaboration to facilitate exchange. Soybeans and maize are priority crops in the negotiations, not rice. Yan informed group that a delegation from China would be visiting US Fall of 2007.
Bockelman reported on GRIN developments. The core collection is being characterized for micronutrients and blast disease reaction under special projects and data will be available in GRIN when projects are completed. Twenty-eight new PI’s were assigned since March 2006. PVP’ed, seed won’t be distributed and request must go to developer. Yan has grown out new Japanese releases from quarantine. Descriptors added to accessions in past year include: Alkali spread (1040 accessions), Amylose (1040), Bran color (29), Grain Type (29), Hull color (27), Kernel length (168), Kernel L/W ratio (dehulled) (168), Kernel width (dehulled) (168), Kernel weight (rough) (83) and protein (1053). Also, panicles of Core accessions are being scanned and images are available on GRIN. Genetic stocks get PI numbers and are registered in Crop Science, but seed is distributed from Stuttgart. Thanks were extended to Yan and McClung for growing out 2000 low inventory lines at Stuttgart, 1000 at Beaumont, and 200 at Puerto Rico. Oard suggested caution when growing out at Puerto Rico since out-crossing may be higher than expected.
Oard also related that SNP markers are now available for Clearfield herbicide resistant genes. Discussed panicle mite issue in Latin America and Gibbons suggested freezing all seed from Puerto Rico as precautionary measure. Seed from the 20 world rice cultivars including U.S. cultivars M-202 and Cypress purified by IRRI, for the Oryza SNP project were imported from IRRI and are being grown in quarantine at Cornell Univ. (Susan McCouch). When the quarantine grow out is completed, seed will be increased at Stuttgart and distributed through GSOR. Motion to adjourn was made by Moldenhauer and seconded by Yan.