Pig Genome Update No. 60

angenmap@db.genome.iastate.edu
May 1, 2003

1. Pig Array Nearing Completion
2. Voting for and Selection of the New Coordinators for NRSP-8 Concluded
3. Your Help in Sharing Microsatellite Primers is Needed
4. Budget Issues Remain Unresolved and New Grant Deadlines
5. Next Year's PAG-XII will be Held January 10-14, 2004
6. Upcoming Meetings

Pig array nearing completion. Materials needed to produce a 13,000 element oligo array are nearing completion. Thanks to the activities of a committee from NRSP (Chris Tuggle, Daniel Pomp (co-chairs), Mike Murtaugh, Diane Moody, Jon Beever and Cathy Ernst) real progress is being made on the development of pig arrays. The committee tackled the challenge of choosing cDNA arrays versus oligos and has compared vendors. At this point final issues on a purchase agreement with the vendor and the spotting facility are being resolved. The array with 13,000 70-mer oligos should be ready for distribution to NRSP-8 members in late May. The plan will be to use Pig Genome Coordinator funds to buy the oligos and partially fund printing of these oligos on to glass slides. Initial printing of between 400-500 slides for the community will take place. To insure that the arrays are not wasted, individual researchers can request 10 free arrays and up to 40 additional ones but they will be responsible for the printing costs of the additional ones. If more than 500 need to be printed this will then happen upon request to the printing facility. We owe a big thank you to all that have helped offer opinions and help, especially the committee for their good work.

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The voting for and selection of the new coordinators for NRSP-8 has concluded. The following individuals/teams have been selected as designates for the new project if approved. They are for Aquaculture: John Liu; Cattle: Jim Womack; Equine: Ernie Bailey; Poultry: Jerry Dodson/Hans Cheng; Sheep: Noelle Cockett; Swine: Max Rothschild and for the Database coordinator: an Iowa State team of Jim Reecy, Max Rothschild, Susan Lamont, and Chris Tuggle. Congratulations to each of you. We learned through our administrative advisor, Dr. Gretel Dentine, that our new project is moving through the approval process and we will probably not have final word until the September meeting of the Experiment Station Directors. We have had encouraging word come out of the North Central region. It is imperative that each of you speaks to your Station Directors and get their support of this worthwhile project.

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Your help in sharing microsatellite primers is needed!! We have been sharing over 11 primer sets world wide for the past 10 years and have recently run out of them. However, the demand continues from many places around the world. If you have unused sets and the documentation is still good and you reside in the US please return them to Pig Genome Coordinator Max Rothschild, 2255 Kildee Hall, Iowa State University, Ames Iowa 50011. If you are in a foreign country please notify the Coordinator by email to arrange for shipping to a requesting lab near you. Your willingness to help will be greatly appreciated.

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Budget issues remain unresolved and new grant deadlines will be in force this year. As with most Federal programs, USDA is operating on a continuing resolution. This will hopefully reach resolution soon. Deb Hamernik reported at PAG that prospects for increased grant funding (as initially passed, at least in the Senate) are now bleak, and the best they could hope for was similar funding in FY 2003 as was received in 2002. The 2003 USDA-CSREES NRI grant program deadline dates for the Animal Genome and Genetic Mechanisms (43.0) and the associated Animal Genome: Basic Reagents and Tools (43.1) were moved forward to January 15, 2003 this year. For FY 2004, these deadline dates will move even earlier, to December 1, 2003.

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Next year's PAG-XII will be held January 10-14, 2004 again in San Diego at the same location. Plenary speakers will begin to be invited soon. If you have speaker suggestions or other comments, please contact one of the organizing committee representatives (Abel Ponce de Leon, apl@umn.edu; Cathy Ernst, ernstc@msu.edu; Bhanu Chowdhary, bchowdhary@cvm.tamu.edu; Noelle Cockett, fanoelle@cc.usu.edu; or Martien Groenen, martien.groenen@alg.vf.wau.nl).

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Upcoming meetings (see: http://www.genome.iastate.edu/community/meetings.html ) Additional items can be found at: http://www.agbiotechnet.com/calendar/index.asp .

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Items for Pig Genome Update 61 can be sent to me by no later than June 15 please.
                    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: Deb Hamernik, CSREES and Caird Rexroad II, ARS

U.S. PIG GENOME COORDINATION PROJECT
Paid for by funds from the NRSP-8
USDA/CSREES sponsored
Pig Genome Coordination Program
http://www.genome.iastate.edu/
Mailing list: angenmap@db.genome.iastate.edu


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