Tom_MGEC_report2012x - MaizeGDB

Maize Genetics Executive Committee
Meeting


1
. Identify
both the needs and the opportunities for
maize genetics


2.
C
ommunicate

this information to the broadest
possible life science community (scientists, farmers
to consumers).


3. We
Do Not
organize the maize genetics
conference
–

this is the job of the steering
committee

Mission of the MGEC


MGEC Members

Elected:

William
Tracy, 2012

Sue
Wessler
, 2012

Jeff
Bennetzen
, 2013

Ed Buckler,
2014 (
Chair
)

Carolyn Lawrence, 2014

Marja

Timmermans
, 2015

Nathan Springer,
2015

Sarah Hake, 2016

Jim
Birchler
, 2016

Appointed:

Small college/
univ

rep

Brent Buckner (Truman State
Univ
)

Latin
American representative

Ruairidh

Sawers

European representative

Frank
Hochholdinger

(University of
Bonn
)
Asian
representative

Jinsheng

Lai

Sept
. 2011.
Members of the MGEC met with Diane
Okamuro

from NSF Plant Genome
Program to discuss opportunities for maize research community.

Summary is posted
on
http://
www.maizegdb.org
/
mgec.php


Sept
. 2011.
Several members of the MGEC attended ASPB/HHMI Plant Science
Summit to develop a ten
-
year plan for plant biology. What are the critical gaps in
our
current
understanding and what tools do we need moving forward
.
A white paper will
be generated for a
10
yr

plan
for investments in plant science.



Feb. 2012
.
Members of MGEC (Lawrence,
Schnable
, Buckner) and Doreen Ware
submitted RCN: “Establishment
of the maize genome assembly and annotation
consortium” to describe and document what the community would like to see for
genome assembly and annotation
.


Feb. 2012.
Brent Buckner worked with John Fowler and Paula
McSteen

on the
Steering Committee to develop the
MaGNET

Program


Several members of MGEC met with members of Congress and aides to discuss value
of plant science to state economy.


Activities 2011
-
2012

National Corn Growers Association

Rick
Vierling

(Director of Research and New Uses
)

vierling
@
ncga.com


Tom Nathan (Grower )

•
Good news
–

research budget is up: Providing money to support the
development of functional genomics tools for
MaizeGDB

(
maizeCyc
,
eFP

browser,
MapMan
)


•
Bad news
–

fundamental research ranked 19/20 in priority status from
6000 farmers from 29 states


•
Need to send the message that the maize research community is
addressing immediate crop production needs (e.g. drought tolerance,
nitrogen and
phosphate use efficiency).


•
Need good stories
–

press releases, outreach activities, field trials
–

and take advantage of opportunities to work directly with
growers

•
NCGA would help with public communication through Research
News of the Day, press releases

USDA/ARS

Jack
Okamuro

(National Program Leader for Crop Production
and Protection
-
oversees genetics, genomics, biotechnology
and biotech risk assessment)


NP301 (plant genetics resources, genomics and genetic improvement) went through a
five year assessment, met with stakeholders and outlined a five
-
year national program
action plan.


Budget are shrinking and will create new challenges

•
closed 9 locations, relocating 280 scientists and support staff, some severe cuts at
ARS,

•
Stock Centers and
MaizeGDB

not significantly impacted at this point

•
ARS is committed to the stewardship of the B73 genome


New director for NIFA
–

Sonny
Ramaswamy

(Dean Agricultural Sciences, Oregon State)

Undersecretary for USDA
–

Cathie
Woteki


New National Program Leader
–

acting NPL for grain crops is David Marshall (NCSU)




National Science Foundation

Karen Cone (Program Director
-
Division of Molecular and
Cellular Biosciences, managing director
iPlant
)


Funding opportunities

•
Plenty of opportunity for maize genetics community to submit proposals to MCB

•
New Postdoctoral Fellowship for Molecular Breeding

•
Mid
-
Career Fellowship to retool for genomics


Emphasis on International Collaborations (Obama and Director of NSF want to
globalize research)
-
search for “International” on NSF

•
opportunities for collaboration with researchers in Central America and Pacific
Islands

•
changes at BREAD program upcoming is a joint venture between BMGF and NSF
to partner with developing country scientists on basic science questions


Tom
Okita

will be a program director at Plant Genome and are looking for
permanent program directors.

2012 Community Survey

•
157 respondents

•
Topics:

–
Research directions

–
Bioinformatics

–
Education and Outreach

–
Maydica

–
Crop Improvement and Specific Suggestions

•
Sort results by self
-
assigned demography


http://maizemeeting.maizegdb.org/mgec
-
survey12/analyze_final_sort.php

Research Directions

•
Advance functional studies
of maize genes,
gene families, and networks (including reverse
genetics resources and developmental atlas
RNAseq

or proteomic data).

•
Simplify maize transformation
and generate
genome engineering capabilities.

•
Increase high
-
throughput
phenotyping

capabilities for maize.

Bioinformatic

Needs

–
Improve assemblies and
annotations of the
B73

reference
genome sequence.


–
Focus on assembly and
structural/functional annotation of
diverse inbred lines
(i.e., move the
focus from B73 to additional lines).


•
Assembly and annotation:





•
Improve interoperability among the databases
that serve our
community including, but not limited to,
MaizeGDB
,
MaizeSequence.org
, NCBI,
PlantGDB
, TAIR, and
Gramene
.

•
Develop interaction
networ
ks

for maize genes.

•
Document experimentally confirmed (high
-
quality)
phenotypes
.


≈

Education and Outreach +
Maydica

•
Increase support for training
in maize
genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics.


•
Support bioinformatics workshops
at Maize
Genetics Conferences and other locations.

Maydica

is a valuable
community resource
and we
should make efforts to improve
the journal including
investigation of open
-
access
models and improvements in
its visibility.


Maydica

is not an important
resource to me
and our
community might be better
served by utilizing existing
journal (for example, getting
additional maize editorial
board members for
PLoS

One).

=

Crop Improvement and Specific
Suggestions

•
Visit the website to read the great examples of
how maize research has had impact
:

http://maizemeeting.maizegdb.org/mgec
-
survey12/analyze_final_sort.php