Pig Genome Update No. 34

angenmap@iastate.edu
January 1, 1998 

 1. A New Set (Set VII) of 51 Primer Pairs Is Made
 2. The National Swine Improvement Meeting met in East Lansing Michigan
 3. The Pig Genome Workshop and the Plant and Animal Genome Meeting
 4. The Swine Species Committee Will Meet in Two Sessions at PAGVII
 5. Limited Assistance May Be Available for PAGVII Attendencee
 6. Database and Web Site Changes are Continuing
 7. Revision of the Genome Mapping Discussion Group is Taking Place
 8. New U.S. Node for PIGBASE
 9. A Special Conference: From Jay Lush to Genomics
10. The 50th Annual Meeting of the European Asso. for Animal Production
11. Upcoming meetings (6 items)
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12. Lauren Christian's Contributions to Pig Genetics Are Remembered
13. A Special Year-end Thanks to All

Happy Holidays to all of you, your families and colleagues!

Just in time for the holidays. A new set (set VI) of 51 primer pairs is now being made and will be ready for shipment January 5, 1999. This makes the total of fluorescent primers now to be 304 pairs. Please continue to make use of them and also be sure to acknowledge their source as it helps to improve cooperation and coordination activities.

The National Swine Improvement Meeting met in East Lansing Michigan on December 4-5. The meeting was reasonably well attended by pig breeders, students and scientists, given the low pork prices. The presentations included several talks dealing with issues related to quantitative and molecular genetics and their use in pig breeding programs. The proceedings are available from Dr. Chuck Christians, University of Minnesota.

The Pig Genome Workshop and the Plant and Animal genome meetings are approaching! This is a reminder about registration for the International Plant & Animal Genome VII Conference (PAGVII), taking place January 17-21, 1999 at the Town & Country Convention Center in San Diego, California. Registration is available via the internet using a secure on-line registration form: https://www.chemint.org/https/pagreg.html . The meeting draft for the PAG-VII conference and abstracts from previous PG-I through PAG-VI meetings are now available. All information about the conference may be obtained from the conference web site located at: http://www.intl-pag.org/ . The hotel will be the Town & Country Convention Center. The meeting is organized by Scherago International, Inc.: pag@scherago.com. The planned workshops and conference events promise to be informative and exciting.

The swine species committee will meet in two sessions at PAGVII. The first session on January 17 (Sunday evening) will include several invited speakers and the second session (Monday afternoon) will include station reports (don't forget to bring yours), the coordinator and advisor reports, and a short business meeting. Please remember to participate. Please contact Sara Sunden, Chair of the species committee, for details.

Need some help to travel this year to PAGVII? As in the past some limited assistance may be available for active U.S. pig genome members to travel to the PAG/species workshop in San Diego. If you hope to go and need some assistance, please contact the U.S. Pig Genome Coordinator soon.

Database and web site changes are continuing. This is the second announcement that the U.S. Pig Genome web site has migrated from the old site: http://www.genome.iastate.edu/ to the new site: http://www.genome.iastate.edu . If any problems appear or you have suggestions concerning the new site, please send emails to: < webmaster@db.genome.iastate.edu;. The old URL will still function for a few months. During this transition period, however, we urge you to update your bookmarks. For more details please see Pig Genome Update 33.

Revision of the ANGENMAP - Genome Mapping Discussion Group (angenmap@iastate.edu) is taking place. The new address will be: angenmap@db.genome.iastate.edu. With the new list service software, we are able to configure the list to automatically filter out unwanted spam mails, mass commercial mailings, list sub/unsub requests, and restrict the postings to those from the list subscribers. Additional details can be found in Pig Genome Update 33.

New U.S. node for PIGBASE. After some preliminary tests, the U.S. node for PIGBASE is fully functioning and ready to accept queries. Now the North America users can use this site for faster transmission speed. You can access the U.S. node for PIGBASE through the U.S. PIG GENE MAPPING Coordination Program web site: http://www.genome.iastate.edu . Please email to < webmaster@db.genome.iastate.edu; if you observe any broken links or encounter any difficulties on this site. The new U.S. node for the Chicken Genome Database is also now completed and can be reached at the above address. Thanks for your attention and stay tuned for further announcements.

A special conference: From Jay Lush to Genomics: Visions for Animal Breeding and Genetics will be held May 16-18, 1999 at Iowa State University Ames, Iowa. This not-to-be-missed conference will bring together quantitative and molecular geneticists from industry, government, and academe to discuss the future of animal breeding and genetics in light of changes in the fields of molecular genetics and bioinformatics. The program will feature eleven plenary lectures by renowned international scientists and a poster session of current research by participants. The schedule is arranged to encourage participant interaction and discussion. Information on the program and speakers can be found at http://www.public.iastate.edu/~ans/graduate/visions.html .

The 50th Annual Meeting of the European Association for Animal Production (EAAP) will be held August 22-26, 1999 in Zurich, (Switzerland). Sessions of the Commission on Animal Genetics include: Consequences of new technologies (with special emphasis on pigs and horses), advances in statistical methods, biological selection limits and fitness constraints, quality of meat and fat as affected by genetics and nutrition (in pigs). Additional information is available from: http://eaap-1999-zurich.ethz.ch

Upcoming meetings:

It is with deep sadness that I mention the passing of Dr. Lauren Christian. Lauren fought a courageous battle against cancer for over 3 years. Lauren's contributions to pig genetics have been many and his discovery of the Stress gene, now known as HAL, CRC1 or RYR1, was a major achievement well before such discoveries have become more common place. His devotion to students, pork producers and his colleagues will be sorely missed. As one of Lauren's close colleagues and collaborators for over 18 years his passing has created a deep personal loss. I wish to thank all those people who sent condolences to me. They have been forwarded to his family. A fund to support a graduate student fellowship is being established in his name.

A special year-end thanks to all who have helped in the last year with the gene mapping project. The suggestions, ideas and information have really helped to make this activity easier and more useful. It is my hope that all of you have a happy holiday season and that the New Year brings with it good health, happiness and blessings for you, your families and friends.

Contributions to Pig Genome Update 35, including short meeting announcements, are always welcome. Please send by February 10. 

                    Max Rothschild
                    U.S. Pig Genome Coordinator
                    2255 Kildee Hall, Department of Animal Science
                    Iowa State University
                    Ames, Iowa 50011
                    Phone: 515-294-6202, Fax: 515-294-2401
                    mfrothsc@iastate.edu

cc: Dick Frahm, CSREES and Roger Gerrits, ARS

U.S. PIG GENOME COORDINATION PROJECT
Paid for by funds from the NRSP-8
USDA/CSREES sponsored
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