W6: Maximizing Conservation and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources and their Information

(Multistate Research Project)

Status: Active

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SAES-422 Reports

Annual/Termination Reports:

[10/05/2022] [09/08/2023] [10/14/2024]

Date of Annual Report: 10/05/2022

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 07/06/2022 - 07/06/2022
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2021 - 09/30/2022

Participants

Ahmad Amjad, U. of Hawaii, Manoa, HI. alobaby@hawaii.edu

Brian Irish, ARS WRPIS, Pullman, WA. brian.irish@usda.gov

Marilyn Warburton, ARS WRPIS, Pullman, WA. marilyn.warburton@usda.gov

Kevin Jensen, ARS FRRL, Logan, UT. kevin.jensen@usda.gov

Charles Brummer, U. of California, Davis, CA. ecbrummer@ucdavis.edu

Ian Ray, New Mexico State U., Las Cruces, NM. iaaray@nmsu.edu

Joseph Kuhl, U. of Idaho, Moscow, ID. jkuhl@uidaho.edu

Lisa Taylor, ARS WRPIS, Pullman, WA. lisa.taylor@ars.usda.gov

Melinda Yerka, U. of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV. myerka@unl.edu

Michael Giroux, Montana State U., Bozeman, MT. mgiroux@montana.edu

Peter Bretting, ARS National Programs, Beltsville, MD. peter.bretting@usda.gov

Scot Hulbert, Washington State U., Pullman, WA. scot.hulbert@wsu.edu

Shaun Mehlenbacher, Oregon State U., Corvallis, OR. shaun.melhlenbacher@oregonstate.edu

Christian Tobias, USDA NIFA, Beltsville, MD. christian.tobias@usda.gov

Matt Lavin, Montana State U., Bozeman, MT. mlavin@montana.edu

Per McCord, Washington State U., Pullman, WA. phmccord@wsu.edu

Brief Summary of Minutes

Kevin Jensen (W6 Chair)

Kevin welcomed everyone, particularly, Marilyn Warburton who was recently hired as the Research Leader at the Western Regional Plant Introduction Station (WRPIS). This was followed by a brief introduction of everyone since there were many new state representatives present. The agenda had changed significantly from previous meeting with the State Reports in the morning followed by a working meeting in the afternoon to discuss ways that the W6 RTAC can help meet current and foreseen needs of W6 Regional Multistate Project.

Scot Hulbert (WSU W6 Administrative Advisor)

Scot provided a report, remarks, and discussed budget

5-year project was approved (2022-2026) – thanks to everyone who worked on it.

Report was given on the new construction of the 100,000 sq ft USDA ARS building on the WSU campus in Pullman, WA. Concerns were raised over possible cost overruns (~$17,000,000) in the construction, which will likely result in the sharing of equipment and controlled environmental rooms. Stakeholders, including Washington State University, are speaking with their representatives in Congress to get additional funding to complete the project.

Wendy Powers would assume Dean of Agriculture August 15, 2022.

Concerns over increased wages and flat budgets were discussed, in the context of the W6 multistate project and personnel supported by it.

2023 budget was presented by Scot Hulbert which requested a $49,352 increase in W6 funding. The W6 budget routinely covers 6 full-time people, wages for summer help and some supplies. A concern discussed was that, due to increased wage requirements, project might have to do with less workers.

Shaun Mehlenbacher made the motion to approve the budget

Charlie Brummer seconded the motion

Discussion … State Representatives need to visit with their respective Experiment Station Directors to support this and other increases to the W6 program.

W6 2023 proposed budget was approve unanimously.

Peter Bretting (USDA ARS National Programs Leader)

Peter Bretting presented slides entitled: The National Plant Germplasm System: 2022 Status, Prospects, and Challenges. A map of the gene banks nationwide was presented. NPGS accessions have increased over the last several years up to 600,092 in 2021. From 2018 to 2021, the number of accessions is not increasing significantly. The big increase was associated with the Seeds of Success program submitting their native plant collections. NPGS distributed 219,000 accessions in 2021 up 14% from 2020. During the Pandemic, some genebanks are finding it difficult to hire temporary, often student labor, because of the low unemployment rate and demographic changes. As in the past, most of these distributions are to public research institutions (e.g., Land-Grant and USDA) with about 1/3 for private usage. Two thirds to three quarters of distributions are domestic and the remainder international. Acknowledged the passing of David Spooner, long-time USDA ARS successful plant geneticist/breeder.

Budget wise, NPGS saw a $2.5 million increase in its 2021. Specifically, the increases went to Small Grains PGR, Aberdeen, ID ($190,000); Vaccinium PGR, Corvallis, OR ($150,000); Hemp PGR, Geneva, NY ($1.35 million); and Pecan PGR, College Station, TX ($400,000). Challenges facing the NPGS include:

Expanding the NPGS operational capacity and infrastructure to reduce PGR management backlogs and meet increased demand for PGR and associated information.

Increased operation costs (labor, inputs, overall inflation, etc.). Reference the Economic Research Service (ERS) Amer Waves online magazine article on “Investment in U.S. Public Agricultural Research and Development Has Gallen by a Third Over Past Two Decades, Lags Major Trade Competitors”.

NPGS personnel transitions – hiring, training, etc. In the next few years over 1/3 of the germplasm managers will likely retire.

Developing and applying cryopreservation and/or in vitro conservation methods for clonal and some seed PGR.

BMPs and procedures for managing accessions (and breeding stocks) with increased diversity of GE traits in more crops, the occurrence of adventitious presence (AP, and the products of gene editing.

Acquiring and conserving additional PGR, especially of crop wild relatives.

Christian Tobias (USDA NIFA Representative)

Christian is representing the Institute of Food Production and Sustainability with programmatic authority over Plant Breeding with over $2 million available and will be taking over the potato breeding research programs within the next year. The agency lost ~80% of their work force in the move to Kansas City, MO with 80% of the time teleworking. Encouraged conventional plant breeding for new cultivars with a deadline of September 2^0,2022 for submission.

2021 W6 RTAC meeting minutes, changes, discussion, and approval

The virtual floor was opened for any discussions, questions, or comments about the 2021 meeting minutes. Brian Irish reported identifying two to three grammatical corrections. Those suggestions were sent to Ian Ray, past W6 RTAC Chair for correction. Ian Ray moved that the minutes be approved, and Kevin Jensen seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously.

State Reports: See the details of all the reports, charts, and graphs by loading the PDF in the attached file.

Budget

The total federal ARS budget for the PGITRU was $3,257,476 and includes the budgets for the Pullman-based germplasm ($2,539,778), the Prosser-based temperate-adapted forage legume germplasm ($275,939) and alfalfa genetics research ($441,759) projects. After indirect costs are assessed, net balance was $2,903,622 with $2,563,900 dedicated to salaries and the remainder for supplies, equipment, repairs, and extramural agreements. The discretionary dollar amount per SY (7 in the Unit in 2020), an indicator of the financial health of the Unit, was $36,228; an improvement from last year due to the abolishment of one of the SY positions. The ‘in kind’ support from the W6 Western Regional Multistate Research Project, through Washington State University, was $477,301.

W6 RTAC Business Meeting

RTAC discussion on how we can make the W6 project sustainable.

Stakeholder group – currently WRPIS/W6 does not have a stakeholder group. Discussion was had on who should be (commodity groups) on the stakeholder committee. Besides research guidance, one of the main reasons for a stakeholder group is to advocate on the WRPIS’s behalf in efforts to remain fiscally sustainable. Possible commodity groups mentioned include alfalfa, American Seed Trade Association, sugar beets, legumes, and The Plant Conservation Alliance.

Each State Representative was tasked with sending some potential stakeholder names to Marilyn before the end of the year. It was decided that the W6 RTAC Chair would invite several stakeholders to the next W6 RTAC meeting in 2023.

Discussion on how to improve ways to collect impact data – One advantage of working with a good stakeholder group is to be able to document the impact that germplasm distributions from the NPGS are having. The W6 RTAC does a good job reporting on current year’s seed distribution and potential use, but there is little follow up in years to come. How can we better hold germplasm users accountable for the germplasm received? In efforts to document impacts, state representatives were asked to contact 2018 germplasm users for publications and impact. Peter Bretting indicated that in the past he had used the ERS to estimate economic impact of NPGS.

Possibly looking on the national level to use Artificial Intelligence to collect data – using a set of key words to search publications.

Could USDA NIFA funded proposals utilizing NPGS germplasm be require to report impacts of the germplasm?

White Paper Development – Demonstration of economic impact.
- Private sector – statement of support (look to commodity groups)
- Public sector (Land Grant U., USDA, non-profit, etc.)
- State Representative Specialty (i.e., Kevin Jensen – grasses)
- Utilize Crop Science Sub-Divisions

It was agreed upon that the state representatives would develop a 1-to-2-page document in their area of specialty, describing the economic impact of NPGS collections. A good example is the “Use of Plant Introduction or Cultivar Development Part I and II”. This is due by December 20^th, 2022.

Budget Increase – W6 portion

Proposed increase

State Reps Responsibility Discussion/Working with Ag. Exp. St. Dir. …Contact Wyoming and Arizona to identify a state representative.

Other ways – discussion on funding

W6 RTAC Nominations for Vice-Chair (Matt Lavin) and Secretary (Amjad Ahmad)

2023 meeting date/site – Prosser, WA after July 4^th

Motion to adjourn the meeting at 5:07 PM, seconded by Ian Ray.

Minutes Attachment:

W-6 - State Reports - 2022.pdf

Accomplishments

Outputs: <ul> <li>A total of 36 publications, including one durum wheat cultivar and five bean germplasm releases, were reported for FY 2021. This includes a book entitled “The Alfalfa Genome” (co-edited by Long-Xi Yu) published by Springer in 2021. It contains 16 chapters covering history, classical and molecular breeding as well as advances in genomics associated with the alfalfa crop.</li> </ul> <ul> <ul> <li>Chickpea (Cicer arietinum), lentil (Lens culinaris) and pea (Pisum sativum) genetic resources were screened for resistance to the pea aphid (Acrythosiphon pisum). The chickpea (Cicer arietinum) resources were screened for resistance to Pythium seed rot caused by Pythium ultimum.  Out of 188 lentil accessions screened for resistance to the pea aphid, twenty were determined to be resistant and fifteen candidate genes were identified as being associated with the resistance.  Out of 301 pea accessions screened for resistance to the pea aphid, 48 were determined to be resistant and seventeen candidate genes were identified as being associated with the resistance.</li> </ul> </ul>   <ul> <li>Activities:</li> </ul> <ul> <ul> <li>The Phaseolus program developed a near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) calibration curve for bean seed protein, which was used to measure the seed protein of the BeanCap genomewide association panel. With this data and the sequencing data publicly available for the BeanCap population, protein levels can be associated with genomic locations and genes. This will lead to information on genes for future marker aided improvement of this important trait.</li> <li>The Cool Season Food Legume program published a collaborative pea evaluation study promoting genomic selection's potential. A set of 482 pea accessions genotyped with 30,600 SNP markers and phenotyped for seed yield and yield-related components highlighted the best genomic prediction model. This was then used to evaluate all USDA pea accessions that were genotyped but not phenotyped, sparing the unit the expense of having to phenotype.</li> <li>A collaborative team led by Long-Xi Yu mapped genetic loci associated with drought and high salinity, two abiotic stressors affecting alfalfa production worldwide. Associated genes were identified that can be used for gene pyramiding, gene editing and developing markers for marker-assisted selection for drought and salt tolerant alfalfa once they are validated.</li> <li>All alfalfa and wild relative germplasm (Medicago spp.) were screened for disease reaction to Phoma medicaginis, the causal agent of spring blackstem and leaf spot of alfalfa.</li> <li>Phenotypic data for resistance to Phytophthora megasperma were collected from 150 seedlings each of 250 half-sib families derived from an elite NMSU breeding population. The study was repeated twice. GWAS analyses of these data, in conjunction with >10,000 DNA markers, are being conducted to identify alfalfa genome regions that are associated with P. megasperma resistance. The data are also being analyzed using multiple genomic selection models to identify superior models for accelerating improvement of alfalfa resistance to this disease.</li> </ul> </ul>   <ul> <li>Milestones: <ul> <li>Washington State University’s Johnson Hall, which housed 8 offices and 4 laboratories used by WRPIS staff, has been vacated prior to the demolition of the building and the construction of the new Plant Biosciences Building. This new building will be funded by the USDA ARS, and house USDA and WSU Units/Departments, faculty offices and laboratories. It will house Pullman-based WRPIS scientific and technical staff and include six modern Unit-shared laboratory spaces. The new building will be built on what is the current Johnson Hall footprint. Johnson Hall is now vacated, and all WRPIS moved into adjacent (and smaller) Clark Hall until the new building is finished. Johnson Hall is scheduled for demolition in January 2023, following asbestos abatement. The new building is scheduled to be completed in l2026 and WRPIS will occupy new facilities at that time.</li> </ul> </li> </ul>

Publications

Abbasi J, Dehghani H, Dvorak J, McGuire PE. 2020. Perennial growth and salinity tolerance in wheat×wheatgrass amphiploids varying in the ratio of wheat to wheatgrass genomes. Plant Breeding 139(6):1281–1289. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/pbr.12856">https://doi.org/10.1111/pbr.12856</a> Al Bari, M., Zheng, P., Worral, H., Szwiec, S., Ma, Y., Main, D., Coyne, C.J., McGee, R.J., Bandillo, N. 2021. Harnessing genetic diversity in the USDA pea (Pisum sativum L.) germplasm collection through genomic prediction. Frontiers in Genetics. 12:707754. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.707754">https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.707754</a> Boots-Haupt, L., Brasier, K., Saldivar-Menchaca, R., Estrada, S., Prieto-Garcia, J., Jiang, J., Riar, R., Hu, J., & Zakeri, H. (2022). Exploration of global faba bean germplasm for agronomic and nitrogen fixation traits. Crop Science, 00, 1– 12. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20794">https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20794</a> Brasier, K, Smither-Kopperl, M, Bullard, V, Young-Matthews, A, Bartow, A, Friddle, M, Bernau, C, Humphrey, M, Dial, H, Wolf, M, Hu, J, & Zakeri, H. A multi-environment analysis of winter faba bean germplasm for cover crop traits. Agronomy Journal.  2021; 113:3051−3064. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.20717">https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.20717</a> Brown, M.M., J.M. Martin, E.M. Jobson, A.C. Hogg, P.M. Carr, and M.J. Giroux. (2022).   Evaluating the impact of Rht hypomorphic mutations in durum wheat.  Crop Science 62, 247-258. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20672">https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20672</a> Chandel, A., Khot, L., Yu, L. 2021. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) crop vigor and yield characterization using high resolution aerial multispectral and thermal infrared imaging technique. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 182. Article 105999. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2021.105999">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2021.105999</a> Cox, A., Boots-Haupt, L., Brasier, K., Riar, R., & Zakeri, H. (2022). Using δ15N to screen for nitrogen fixation: Reference plant position and species. Agronomy Journal, 114, 1842-1850. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.21032">https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.21032</a> Das, S, Porter, LD, Ma, Y, Coyne, CJ, Chaves-Cordoba, B & Naidu, RA (2022) Resistance in lentil (Lens culinaris) genetic resources to the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum). Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 170: 755– 769. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/eea.13202">https://doi.org/10.1111/eea.13202</a> Hogg, A. C., Carr, P., Eberly, J., Chen, C., Kowatch-Carlson, C., Crutcher, F., Lamb, P., McNamara, K., Haney, E., Kephart, K., Smith, V., Dykes, L., Chen, X., Huang, , & Giroux, M. (2022). Registration of ‘Lustre’ durum wheat. Journal of Plant Registrations, 16, 576– 584. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20214">https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20214</a> Irish, B.M., Greene, S.L. 2021. Germplasm collection, genetic resources, and gene pools in alfalfa. In: Yu LX., Kole C., editors. The Alfalfa Genome. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer. Cham, Switzerland. p.43-64. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74466-3_4">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74466-3_4</a> Lin, S., C.A. Medina, S. Norberg, D. Combs, G. Wang, G. Shewmaker, S. Fransen, D. Llewellyn, Long-Xi Yu. 2021. Genome-Wide Association Studies Identifying Multiple Loci Associated with Alfalfa Forage Quality. Frontiers in Plant Science. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.648192">https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.648192</a> LoPresti EF, Pan V, Goidell J, Weber MG, Karban R. (2019) Mucilage-bound sand reduces seed predation by ants but not by reducing apparency: a field test of 53 plant species. Ecology. 2019 Oct;100(10):e02809. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2809">https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2809</a> Jobson, E.M., J.M. Martin, R. Sharrock, A.C. Hogg, and M.J. Giroux. (2021a). Identification and molecular characterization of novel Rht-1 alleles in hard red spring wheat. Crop Science. 61:1030–1037. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20375">https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20375</a> Jobson, E.M., J-B. Ohm, J.M. Martin, and M.J. Giroux. (2021b) Rht-1 semi-dwarfing alleles increase the abundance of high molecular weight glutenin subunits.  Cereal Chemistry 98:337-345.  <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cche.10371">https://doi.org/10.1002/cche.10371</a> Medina, C., Samac, D.A., Yu, L. 2021. Pan-transcriptome identifying master genes and regulation network in response to drought and salt stresses in Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). Scientific Reports. 11:17203. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96712-x">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96712-x</a> Medina, C., Yu, L. 2021. Developing SNPs and strategies for genomic analysis in alfalfa. In: Yu LX., Kole C., editors. The Alfalfa Genome. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer. Cham, Switzerland. pp.159-175. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74466-3_10">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74466-3_10</a> Pan, VS, M McMunn, R Karban, J Goidell, MG Weber, EF LoPresti. (2021) Mucilage binding to the ground protects seeds of many plants from harvester ants: a functional investigation. Functional Ecology, 35: 2448-2460. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13881">https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13881</a>  Pan, VS, C Girvin, EF LoPresti. (2022) Attachment strength of seed mucilage prevent seed dislodgement in high surface flow: a mechanistic investigation. Annals of Botany, mcac045, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcac045">https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcac045</a> Parajuli, A., Yu, L., Peel, M., See, D.R., Wager, S., Norberg, S., Zhang, Z. 2021. Self-incompatibility, inbreeding depression, and potential to develop inbred lines in alfalfa. In: Yu LX., Kole C., editors. The Alfalfa Genome. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer. Cham, Switzerland. p.255-269. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74466-3_15">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74466-3_15</a> Parker, T. A., Berny Mier y Teran, J. C., Palkovic, A., Jernstedt, J., & Gepts, P. (2020). Pod indehiscence is a domestication and aridity resilience trait in common bean. New Phytologist, 225(1), 558-570. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16164">https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16164</a> Parker, T., & Gepts, P. (2021), Population genomics of Phaseolus spp.: A domestication hotspot. In: Rajora OP (ed) Population Genomics: Crop Plants. Springer Nature Switzerland. Parker, T., Palkovic, A., Brummer, E. C., & Gepts, P. (2021). Registration of ‘UC Sunrise’heirloom‐like orange and white mottled bean. Journal of Plant Registrations, 15(1), 43-47. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20096">https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20096</a> Parker, T., Palkovic, A., Brummer, E. C., & Gepts, P. (2021). Registration of ‘UC Southwest Red’ heirloom‐like red and white mottled bean. Journal of Plant Registrations, 15(1), 21-27.   <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20092">https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20092</a> Parker, T., Palkovic, A., Brummer, E. C., & Gepts, P. (2021). Registration of ‘UC Southwest Gold’ heirloom‐like gold and white mottled bean. Journal of Plant Registrations, 15(1), 48-52.   <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20117">https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20117</a> Parker, T., Palkovic, A., Brummer, E. C., & Gepts, P. (2021). Registration of ‘UC Rio Zape’ heirloom‐like dry bean. Journal of Plant Registrations, 15(1), 37-42.  <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20095">https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20095</a> Parker, T., Palkovic, A., Brummer, E. C., & Gepts, P. (2021). Registration of ‘UC Tiger's Eye’ heirloom‐like dry bean. Journal of Plant Registrations, 15(1), 16-20.  <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20084">https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20084</a> Parker, T.A., Cetz, J., de Sousa, L.L., Kuzay, S., Lo, S., Floriani, T.d.O., Njau, S., Arunga, E., Duitama, J., Jernstedt, J., Myers, J.R., Llaca, V., Herrera-Estrella, A. and Gepts, P. (2022), Loss of pod strings in common bean is associated with gene duplication, retrotransposon insertion and overexpression of PvIND. New Phytol, 235: 2454-2465. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18319">https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18319</a> Rajendran, K., Coyne, C.J., Zheng, P., Saha, G., Main, D., Amin, N., Ma, Y., Kisha, T.J., Bett, K., Kumar Agrawal, S., McGee, R.J. 2021. Genetic diversity and GWAS of agronomic traits using an ICARDA lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) Reference Plus collection. Plant Genetic Resources. 1-10. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S147926212100006X">https://doi.org/10.1017/S147926212100006X</a> Samac, D.A., Yu, L., Missaoui, A.M. 2021. Identification and characterization of disease resistance genes in alfalfa and Medicago truncatula for breeding improved cultivars. In: Yu, X. and Kole, C., editors. The Alfalfa Genome, Compendium of Plant Genomics. Springer, Cham: Switzerland. p. 211-233. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74466-3_13">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74466-3_13</a> Soler-Garzón, A., A. Oladzad, J. Beaver, S. Beebe, R. Lee, J. Lobaton, E. Macea, P. McClean, B. Raatz, J. C. Rosas, Q. Song, P. N. Miklas. 2021. NAC candidate gene marker for bgm-1 and interaction with QTL for resistance to Bean golden yellow mosaic virus in common bean. Front. Plant Sci. 12:628443. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.628443">https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.628443</a> Tang, Z., Parajuli, A., Chen, C., Hu, Y., Revolinski, S., Medina, C., Lin, S., Zhang, Z., Yu, L. 2021. Validation of UAV-based alfalfa biomass predictability using photogrammetry with fully automatic plot segmentation. Scientific Reports. 11(1). Article 3336. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82797-x">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82797-x</a> Vetch JM, Tillett BJ, Bruckner P, Martin JM, Marlowe K, Hooker MA, See DR, Giroux MJ. TAMFT-3A and TAMFT-3B2 homeologs are associated with wheat preharvest sprouting. Plant Genome. 2022 Aug 16:e20250. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20250">https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20250</a>. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35971881 Volk, G.M., Byrne, P.F., Coyne, C.J., Flint Garcia, S.A., Reeves, P.A., Richards, C.M. 2021. Integrating genomic and phenomic approaches to support plant genetic resources conservation and use. Plants. 10(11). Article e2260. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10112260">https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10112260</a> Volkman, M.M., J.M. Martin, A.C. Hogg, L. Wright, C. Hale, P.M. Carr, and M.J. Giroux. (2022) Teosinte Branched 1 mutations increase tillering.  Crop Science 62:1522-1530. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20775">https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20775</a> Weeden, N., Coyne, C., Lavin, M., McPhee, K. E. (2021) Distinguishing among Pisum accessions using a hypervariable intron within Mendel’s green/yellow cotyledon gene. no. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution: v. 68 p. 2591-2609. Yu, L., Medina, C., Peel, M. 2021. Genetic and genomic assessments for improving drought resilience in alfalfa. In: Yu LX., Kole C., editors. The Alfalfa Genome. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer. Cham, Switzerland. p.235-253. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74466-3_14">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74466-3_14</a>

Impact Statements

The distribution of more than 35,075 germplasm requests to users in 48 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and 48 foreign countries is a significant annual milestone, and represents the importance of plant genetic resources maintained by WRPIS. In addition, the acquisition of 1,333 new accessions, and additional data uploaded to GRIN for 364 existing accessions, will have a positive impact on the continued usefulness of and demand for WRPIS germplasm.

Date of Annual Report: 09/08/2023

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 07/11/2023 - 07/12/2023
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/0222 - 09/30/2023

Participants

First Last Organization RTAC email
Alex Cornwall USDA ARS PGITRU Curator -Horticultural Crops alex.cornwall@usda.gov
Ammjad Ahmad U. Hawaii State Representative; Secretary alobady@hawaii.edu
Anna Murphy Beet Sugar Beet Stakeholder anna@bsdf-assbt.org
Bailey Hallwachs USDA ARS PGITRU Coordinator - Seeds of Success Bailey.Hallwachs@usda.gov
Brian Irish USDA ARS PGITRU Curator – Forage Legumes Brian.Irish@usda.gov
Olson Carla USDA ARS PGITRU Program Support Assistant Carla.Olson@usda.gov
Carolyn Scagel USDA ARS Corvallis Acting Research Leader carolyn.scagel@usda.gov
Charles Brummer U. of California, Davis State Representative ecbrummer@ucdavis.edu
Christian Tobias USDA NIFA National Program Leader Christian.Tobias@usda.gov
Clare Coyne USDA ARS PGITRU Curator - Cool Season Food Legumes Clarice.Coyne@usda.gov
Claire Heinitz USDA ARS Davis Research Leader claire.heinitz@usda.gov
David Van Klaveren USDA ARS PGITRU Horticultural Crops Technician David.VanKlaveren@wsu.edu
Donna Harris U. of Wyoming State Representative Donna.Harris@uwyo.edu
Estela Cervantes USDA ARS PGITRU Forage Crops Technician Estela.Cervantes@usda.gov
Gary Kinard USDA ARS NGRL Research Leader Gary.Kinard@usda.gov
Gayle Volk USDA ARS NLGRP Research Scientist Gayle.Volk@usda.gov
Glenn Wright U. of Arizona State Representative gwright@ag.arizona.edu
Harold Bockelman USDA ARS Aberdeen NSGC Curator Harold.Bockelman@usda.gov
Jakir Hasan U. of Alaska State Representative mjhasan@alaska.edu
Jennifer Clarke Calgreens Stakeholder jennifer@calgreens.org
Jessica Shade USDA NIFA NIFA Office of National Programs Jessica.shade@usda.gov
Joseph Kuhl U. of Idaho State Representative jkuhl@uidaho.edu
Kevin Jensen USDA ARS Logan State Representative; Chair Kevin.Jensen@usda.gov
Lauri Reinhold USDA ARS Corvallis Curator - Horticultural Crops Lauri.Reinhold@usda.gov
Lisa Taylor USDA ARS PGITRU Database and Seed Storage manager Lisa.Taylor@usda.gov
Long-Xi Yu USDA ARS PGITRU Research Scientist longxi.yu@usda.gov
Marilyn Warburton USDA ARS PGITRU Research Leader marilyn.warburton@usda.gov
Melanie Harrison USDA ARS Griffin Research Leader melanie.harrison@usda.gov
Melinda Yerka U. of Nevada State Representative myerka@unr.edu
Melissa Scholten USDA ARS PGITRU Technician Melissa.Scholten@usda.gov
Nahla Bassil USDA ARS Corvallis Scientist nahla.bassil@usda.gov
Naveen Puppala New Mexico State U. State Representative npuppala@nmsu.edu
Norman Weeden Montana State U. State Representative nfweeden@gmail.com
Paul Galewski USDA ARS PGITRU Curator - Grasses/Safflower Paul.Galewski@usda.gov
Per McCord Washington State U. State Representative, PD phmccord@wsu.edu
Peter Ballerstedt Barenbrug Seed Stakeholder pballerstedt@barusa.com
Peter Bretting USDA ARS Beltsville National Program Leader Peter.Bretting@usda.gov
Robert Kreuger USDA ARS Riverside Research Leader robert.krueger@usda.gov
Sarah Dohle USDA ARS PGITRU Curator - Beans sarah.dohle@gmail.com
Scot Hulbert Washington State U. Administrative Advisor scot_hulbert@wsu.edu
Shawn Mehlenbacher Oregon State U. State Representative Shawn.Mehlenbacher@oregonstate.edu
Suresh Bhamidimarri Corteva Agrisciences Stakeholder suresh.bhamidimarri@corteva.com
Tarah McHugh USDA ARS Albany Area Director tara.mchugh@usda.gov
Tracie Matsumoto USD ARS Hilo Research Leader Tracie.Matsumoto@usda.gov

Brief Summary of Minutes

See graphs for report summaries and the full State Reports in the Attachments section under the Outline in the Homepage

Day 1: July 11, 2023

8:00 am: The meeting started by introduction of meeting attendees.

8:05 am: The attendees were asked regarding any issues with the current proposed agenda for the meeting: No issues were raised by the meeting attendees.

8:06 am: The USDA leadership reports - Peter Bretting

Peter Bretting presented the annual update of the national centers and the home-office work continuous situation. Peter acknowledged the new state representatives, thanked them for serving on the W6-RTAC advisory committee, and emphasized on the importance of this committee.

The presentation emphasized the large number of genebanks in Western Region and the large number of accessions they preserve. Also, that the genebanks they cover most of the growing regions in the US. The location of the genebanks in association with the location of different land-grant universities in the Western Region for over 80 years.

Figure (1): Map of the USDA National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) locations nationwide (See graph in Attachments)

The location is part of the connection between genebanks, land-grant universities, USDA, and agricultural producers. This connection is important for the long-term care of the germplasm collections. No one institution or organization can do it alone. As of December 2022, over six hundred and five thousand accessions are held by the NPGS. The growth rate over the last few years has been relatively modest, due to the focus on taking care of the existing collection.

There's also been some new collections that have been started in the last few years, including coffee and hemp. The average number of samples distributed annually is between 225,000-250,000. The distribution was down in 2020 due to the COVID Pandemic and currently distributions are back to normal as before pre-Pandemic.

Figure (2): The Demand for NPGS Germplasm 2013-2022 (See graph in Attachments)

The number or percentage of the germplasm that’s distributed to the US depending upon the crop is usually between two-thirds to three-quarters, and that really depends on international interest in the crop. In the US, the largest recipients are the faculty and students at land-grant universities, then public sector organization, such as ARS. Depending upon the crop, two-thirds, or three-quarters of the domestic distributions are for the public sector, and the remainder are to the private sector. Again, a this is a long-term average not a quota and not surprisingly those crops where there’s a very strong private sector support are the ones with the lowest public sector distribution.

Regarding the budget: The ARS portion of the NPGS has been growing slowly over the last few years, just over 50 million dollars. At present the NPGS is grateful for this level of support. However, the purchasing power of the dollar in comparison to the budget increase, the situation looks less rosy. The key challenges are expanding the operational capacity and the infrastructure to meet the backlogs in some of our management operations. Additionally, the operational costs, laborers, more expensive inputs, fuel, and equipment (just the overall inflation).

An article by an Economic Research Service member stated that the investment in US public sector in real dollars has fallen by a third over the last twenty years. The NPGS budget is following same trend, with a generational turnover, as baby boomers continue to retire, and the need to hire new staff. Hiring new staff members come with challenges of training them in order to provide the same high-quality services expected from the NPGS and for different crops based on the storage conditions (liquid nitrogen, in-vitro, tissue culture, propagated materials in the form of buds, embryos, etc. Efficiency in the process and having more information about the accessions, will make them more valuable for breeding, research, and production.

Rehiring of vacant positions, at the genebanks, is on-going but slow. Some have been vacant for over 4 years now. Training new hires is led by ARS and NIFA grant to design and develop a training program for plant genetic source management. Due to the large-scale international interest in such training, it was decided in 2018 it really needed to be distance learning/online. Currently, there is a three module, three credit course at Colorado State University. Additionally, climate change and its impact on current crops and varieties productivity and the need for more adapted crops and varieties. Recent research funds been focusing on commodity crops, such as pecan, coffee, and pulses. A question was raised from the audience regarding the expectations for the coming annual budget as its expected to be released sometime in September or October 2023.

Figure (3): FY22 ARS NPGS budgetary increases for specific crops (See graph in Attachments)

8:33 am: Tara McHugh, Area director for the Pacific West Area

Tara McHugh started her presentation by thanking Kevin, Marilyn, and everyone contributed to putting the meeting together. Thanking Peter for the thorough detailed presentation.

8:37 am: Kevin, as the Acting Associate Area Director, was asked to provide a presentation.

Kevin gave an overview of the area, including that there are 21 locations spread across eight States (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington) and many of those are not located or co-located with land-grant universities. There are 49 research units, there are 401 Ph.D. Scientists, and approximately 1,400 employees. There’s a new shellfish breeding program in Newport, OR. The research includes crops, animals, human nutrition, and program utilization and being around different areas show the impressing work put there to keep the centers running. The relations with the stakeholder (internal and external) are crucial to keep the support continuous. Focusing on the stakeholders need and their input is important for this work to continue and thrive.

Congressional appropriation (233 million annually) and soft funds of 22 million (10% of the total budget) and are the source of funds for the centers. The soft funds have been helpful in supporting post-doctorate associates and other positions. ARS are encouraged to apply for soft funds. The leadership is committed to fulfill the stakeholders needs. Anna Murphy of the Beet Sugar Development Foundation asked about the weed resistance budget. Tara Hughes mentioned that the fund is being used to fund some positions to work on these issues.

8:45 am. Jessica Shade and Christian Tobias from the USDA NIFA Division of Plant Systems Production introduced themselves and Jessica started the presentation outlines including NIFA programs updates, plant breeding roadmap, and some specific funding opportunities. Jessica is on the Urban Indoor and Emerging Ag Program team, the Specialty Crop Research Initiative team, and the Data Science for Ag Systems team, while Christian AFRI programs, Breeding for Agricultural Production, and Plant Breeding or Conventional Plant Breeding for Cultivars Development and on some non-AFRI Programs.

The available funding programs are for food and Ag-sciences related topics. NIFA goal and mission of investing in and advancing agricultural research, education, and extension to solve societal challenges, and the vision of transformative discoveries, education, and engagement to address our challenges. NIFA covers a broad array of program areas. The Ag Food Research Initiative has a total funding of 455 million dollars for its multiple programs, as well as other competitive grants outside of AFRI, like the SCRI program, which gets 80 million dollars annually.

Jessica provided information about recent leadership changes within NIFA. A new director (Manjit Misra) was appointed on May 6, 2023. Dionne Toombs is the Associate Director.

They also updated the committee regarding the Grants Modernization Initiative, which is focusing on updating the outdated current grant management system. The new system is based on the NIH system and there are some issues might cause delays. The USDA Plant Breeding Roadmap 2021-2026, which was based off extensive stakeholder engagement and needs and focused USDA plant breeding priorities.

The roadmap has a focus on crops and markets that impact public pulse of ours and ensure genetic resources for specialty crops that meet the economic, cultural, and nutritional needs of Americans, and it includes the entire breeding cycle in a very integrated way, and it's focused on developing and modeling novel and optimal methods for breeding. And it connects education and workforce development programs with startup and established businesses with a focus on building human and decision-making skills and on simulation, modeling, and forecasting future plant breeding skills.

It also focuses on developing and scaling up new methods for things like rapid development of plant breeding, education programs, faculty and research professionals to meet future plant breeding needs and increase access to program participation among underserved communities. It also builds out a plant-breeding emphasis and stakeholder feedback integration for crops that are important to tribal groups and underserved communities.

More information about the new roadmap can be found on at the following link (http://www.usda.gov/topics/plants) and provide feedbacks to (PBRoadmapComments@usda.gov).

Christian highlighted some recent funding from different programs related to the W6 committee, including available funds, crop specific information, and it did not include funding from programs for post-doctoral fellowships, or plant protection or plant production systems area. The presentation included an overview of AFRI and non-AFRI programs and included information on the most beneficial points of focus (e.g., deadline, letter of intent, program priorities.

There are three requests for applications associated with the AFRI program, the Foundation and Applied Science, Education and Workforce Development, and Sustainable AgSystems.

The AFRI SAS (Sustainable Agricultural Systems) RFA was published in February. These are integrated grants. There is one program emphasis on mitigating methane emission in ruminants and other than that there is a call to address areas that are administration priorities (such as climate change, the bio-economy, and nutrition security). These, again, can address all six AFRI farm bill areas, and they are expected to implement a systems-based approach, including research, education, and extension. There are other programs listed but application deadline has passed for this year. Programs vary in their requirements, including two-step application that include letter of intent, pre-proposal, and if invited, a full application to follow (e.g., SCRI). Other programs might be of interest including AFRI FAS with the below priorities and a link to previously held technical assistance webinar:

Figure (4): AFRI FAS priorities areas. (See graph in Attachments)

Figure (5): W6-relevant competitive funding 2019-Present. (See graph in Attachments)

9:13 am: Kevin thanked the presenters and mentioned the last year minutes and the states reports for 2022 and what they are used for regarding the amount, use, benefits, and impact of germplasms requested from the genebanks.

9:15 am: California Report: Charlie Brummer

Charlie started the state report by thanking Brian Irish and all other curators at the genebanks for their outstanding and hard work in keeping the germplasm available and the importance of these germplasm for many funds and fulfillment of objectives, since they are not available commercially. Charlie also mentioned the importance of doing a better job at reporting to show how impactful this germplasm is in new cultivar development for various purposes, which could be the difference between getting or not getting grant awards. Charlie will be submitting the state report separately.

Kevin asked a question about the implication of the germplasm availability or lack of availability impact on the expected results of the work when it comes to the alfalfa or other crops in the industry. Some discussion was about viruses in sugar-beet and the difficulty in regenerating germplasm as it requires large isolation distances order to maintain genetic integrity. The requirements make it harder to produce more seeds for the local industry.

9:25 am: Idaho State Report: Joseph Kuhl:

Joseph gave a report for 2 years (2019 and 2022) set of orders form WRPIS. From Idaho requested about twenty orders for a total of 107 accessions. There was a total of 10 different groups placing the 20 orders, with 10 of them placed by private companies followed by 2 universities, 2 private individuals, and 1 from a state agency. A total of ten emails were sent out to the groups. In these orders, the five companies placed half of the orders. Idaho State seed lab have placed 4 orders, and so they're requesting several different plant species as controls in their evaluation. Private company requests are for lines used in breeding programs.

Kevin asked about the responses from 2019 orders. Joe explained that the replies if, if any, were generally thanking the W6 genebanks for providing the lines, with no specific results or publications to report.

9:30 am: Montana State Report: Norman Weeden

There was 1 request with over 60 accessions of faba bean from Montana State. The research is for variety evaluation and development effort. The evaluation started last in the 2021 and it continuous for FY22. Most recent work on crops and varieties selection have been focusing on the selection for certain characteristics, including heat tolerance and disease resistance. Some new findings have been reported including the “Stay Green Intron” cotyledon color gene in dry peas and how it may or may not exist in other species and how important such characteristics for other species.

Figure (6): Results of the STAYGREEN Intron in dry peas species and sub-species (See graph in Attachments)

9:40 am: New Mexico State Report: Naveen Puppala

The report was compiled by Ian Ray. In FY22, there was 4 orders with 59 total accessions received. 70% of the orders were from the New Mexico State University, followed by the University of New Mexico with 27% and 3% was ordered by the Highlands University. The main purpose for the orders was for breeding and genetics, ecological uses, and field demonstrations.

9:45 am: Nevada State Report: Melinda Yerka

In FY22, four orders, for 57 accessions, were placed from the genebanks. 33.3% of the accessions were used in entomology, 19.3% in Taxonomy, and 47.4% in anthropology. Recently there was a reported published manuscript using NPGS plant materials. The University of Nevada affiliates are the most significant users of the NPGS system. Generally, the users are very happy with the materials quality, no recent release of any of the ordered materials. Responders gave detailed information about the purpose for the orders.

9:50-10:30 am Break

10:30 am: Oregon State Report: Shawn Mehlenbacher

The requested accessions were used for disease-resistance and yield selection. New variety of hazelnut will be released under the name “The Beast”. Allium accessions were ordered for research related to DADS (diallyl disulfide) analysis. This is an oil-soluble organosulfur compound found in garlic, tested for suppressing human non-small cell lung carcinoma. A Journal article was published with the Journal of Agricultural and Food Systems. The accessions were ordered by the University affiliates and USDA-ARS fellows. Members of the private (seed companies and nurseries) sector placed orders as well for identification purposes, field evaluation, seed increase, and other purposes. A variety of bean “Ruby Dwarf Horticultural” is currently growing for seed increase. Three journal articles were published.

10:55 am: Utah State Report: Kevin Jensen.

In 2022 there were four NPGS-W6 orders received from 3 individuals (3 from government agencies and 1 from the university). One of the points presented was regarding hybrid validity and other interesting information from the tested lines. Bad email addresses reduced the percentage of responses received.

Figure (7): Orders by NPGS site received in the state of Washington in 2019. (See graphs in Attachments)

11:05 am: Washington State Report: Per McCord

There were 130 requests in 2019, and we received responses from 42% of total emails sent, with 11 bad email addresses. There were a total of 8 publications, including a PhD thesis and a 1 non-referral publication. The accessions requests were placed for various reasons, including pest resistance, variety evaluation, gene-mapping, and other purposes. For 2022, there were 73 requests, with a total of 3,668 accessions received by various entities.

11:15 am: Alaska State Report:

Three individuals requested accession from the genebanks. Since the individuals were contacted but didn’t reply, a reminder email will be sent again, and the final report will be submitted via an email later. A question came up about climate change impacting the growing season in Alaska and how that will impact the future of crop production in the state.

11:25 am: Hawaii State Report: Amjad Ahmad

The report started by mentioning the importance of the NPGS W6 as a crucial resource for Hawaii, mainly due to limited options of breeding program focused on the state with its tropical/sub-tropical condition, the state micro-climates, and how having access to the accessions allowed for improved crop diversity and variety selection for the state. There was 1 request for accessions from the state in 2022 for forage crop seeds. The Hawaii (Big Island) Island is known for its livestock, but climate change and droughts cycles have impacted the availability of grass in sufficient amount. The request was from a private ranch to evaluate for faster growing grass for animal feed. The ranch owners were very pleased with the accessions they received and are very thankful for the genebanks.

11:35 am: Wyoming State Report: Donna Harris:

In 2022 there were four orders placed by individuals from the University of Wyoming with a total of 98 accession received. The accessions were used for research purposes in variety evaluation, bio-remediation, mapping of popping bean, studying genes related to far red light sensitivity.

In 2019 there were 8 orders for accessions and total of 51 accessions were received. The requests were mainly from the University and used for research purposes in variety evaluation, crop development, and demonstration/educational purposes.

11:45 am: Arizona State Report: Glenn Wright

In 2019 there were 10 orders mostly by state agencies and they were used for various purposes in research, genetics, demonstration, and variety evaluation. In 2022 there was 11orders and they were placed mostly by state agencies. There were 3 responses to the survey sent regarding the received accessions with general satisfaction.

A discussion among the meeting participants was initiated and ensured regarding ways to improve response rate from the germplasm recipients and better communication ways between the genebanks and the accessions recipients, especially when there are issues with an order (e.g., germination rates of seed).

11:55 am: ARS UPDATES:

NGRL Update: Gary Kinard

GRIN-Global database system had not been affected significantly with the Pandemic and over the past 3+ years, new functions have been introduced, including GRIN-U (https://grin-u.org/) as an open access site for education, training, and outreach information. There's also a companion YouTube-channel that houses some interesting cool, relatively short videos on a whole range of topics related to plant genetic resources. Karen Williams retired at the end of 2022 after 39 years of services at the ARS. However, Karen is coming back for 10-12 hours a week through an agreement to facilitate the transitioning until the new scientist in her role is more adequately trained. Peter Abrahamian will join NGRL as a Research Plant Pathologist.

New functions were added into GRIN-Global, including seasonal availability and the ability to request multiple form types (e.g., seed, cuttings, pollen, etc.) of an accession. These are mostly relevant to the clonal collections. New taxonomy regulations were incorporated during the search of images of plant parts, and others related to accessibility with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements. NGRL is also work on a request to allow orders from multiple genebanks to be processed as well.

NSGC Update: Harold Bockelman

The National Small Grains Collection (NSGC) is currently rehiring a vacant position to add into the small group of people at the NSGC. The team has a new research leader, Noelle Anglin, who is now working on potatoes and will be working part time with the NSGC. The NSGC has reached a milestone of 150,000 total accessions conserved this year. About 10,000 of those accessions are mapping populations and temporary accessions which are valuable for a period, as part of various research projects that were funded by NIFA and other organizations. There is a large collection of the small grains, and most are grown in Idaho. An exception is rice, which the Dale Bumpers Rice Research Center in Stuttgart, AR grow and evaluate. 37,000 accessions were distributed last year. A change in emphasis on the wild accessions through new projects by studying methods to validate accessions in terms of taxonomy and looking at ways to get viability data on the wild accessions.

NCGR-Corvallis Update: Lauri Reinhold

Figure (8) Total accessions and distribution line from the NCGR-Corvallis site 2011-2022. (See graph in Attachments)

NCGR-Davis Updates: Claire Heinitz

Claire Heinitz is the recently hired Research Leader for two units, the NCGR at Davis and NALPGRU-Parlier and gave updates for both locations. The NCGR-Davis maintains 14 different crops that are all Mediterranean adapted tree fruit crops and grapes. They are maintained as a fully clonal collection on ~70 acres of land that is leased from UC-Davis. The land ownership situation impacts the management decisions at the site. An irrigation well, serving about half of the research plot, was lost the summer before last, and the procurement process to drill a new well is on-going. Another well shared with UC-Davis also went down and around the same time. Drought issues in California and research plots are realities the unit is facing. Recently, there were two major retirements, and the positions are still vacant. The vacancies have caused overload on other employees and unit is relying on some stakeholder support. The NALPGRU-Parlier has a dual mission of serving as a service regeneration and backup site for many other NPGS sites in the system. It also has its own germplasm collections of emerging arid lands crops. The site has a collection of new or emerging crops, mostly with industrial uses. There are a few staff changes, including an interim curator, Daniel Packer from Washington State University. The vacancies have increased load on the technicians in doing more.

NLGRP Update: Gayle Volk

The USDA-ARS NLGRP has over 600,000 accessions representing over 2500 genera at 20 locations. The NLGRP serves as a safe secondary backup for the NPGS materials. 93% of the materials are seeds propagated and 7% are vegetative propagated materials. Fort Collins site have ~82% of the NPGS seeds accessions and ~15% of the clonal accessions backed up. Securing these accessions is a huge amount of work and labor due to the specific storing conditions needed to secure these materials. A GRIN-Global programmer, hired a few years ago, is working with both the seed and the clonal group to improve documentation process and standardizing information collection process. He is also working on to improve the GRIN-Global system interfaces. The updates will improve reporting process, materials condition, and materials availability. There was a mention on a new publication on safeguarding plant genetic resources during climate change. Updates on the new GRIN-U website and e-book chapter publications about genebanks and other topics through Colorado State University. Also, GRIN-U and YouTube-channel content and 1-credit classes provided by the Colorado State University regarding plant genetic resources conservation.

NCGR-Hilo: Tracie Matsumoto:

The site is one of 3 sites for tropical/subtropical crops (Florida, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii). The site has crops important for Hawaii Agriculture. There have been few retirements and new hires at the site recently. Coffee has been added to the germplasm collection with a new person studying at the University of Hawaii to become a curator. Lisa Keith a pathologist working on the new Macadamia quick decline disease and the coffee leaf rust that was first reported in Hawaii in 2020. Shortage in Rainbow Hybrid papaya seed is on-going in Hawaii and the effort working with the University of Hawaii to produce the hybrid seeds for local use. In collaboration with the genebanks in Florida, ‘Sharwil’ avocado varieties were approved for export from Hawaii to 13 US states. A new DNA Fingerprinting tool is being developed to ensure quality and detect contamination in avocado. Testing for the mild mosaic virus in cacao is ongoing and variety trials have been conducted statewide by the University of Hawaii faculty.

NCGR-Riverside: Robert Krueger

Robert Kreuger is the currently research leader at the Riverside genebank. The site is located at UC-Riverside campus. The site leases 2-acres owned by the USDA and utilizes 12,000 sq. ft of land owned by UC-Riverside. A new plant pathologist position that’s currently being recruited and a curator position to be recruited soon. The site depends on student workers, undergraduate student workers for a lot of the day-to-day activities. 90% of the activities are on citrus and 10% on date palms. Additional field sites are located at Irvine, which is in the coastal part of Southern California, and the other is a Thermal, CA which is in the low desert area. A long-term cryopreservation trial for Citrus spp. project with Fort Collins is on-going. 541 accessions were done out of 609 total, with some are pending viability assessment. When it comes to stakeholders, there are some institutional stakeholders, including commodity groups, research boards, Research and Development Foundation, and California Date Commission. There are domestic and international collaborating scientists and other national genebanks in genetic resource conservation programs.

*Unique accessions = 1,687.

Figure (9): Germplasm holdings at the NCGR-Riverside genebank, 2023. (See graph in Attachments)

LUNCH BREAK

2:00 pm: Scot Hulbert: Budget Updates

Participating remotely, Scot provided updates on the budget and funding sources, including the Farm Bill, NIFA, and others. Scot also brought up the possibility that WSU will be working under a new funding allocation model in the future, which could cause charges for space allocation in WSU buildings and fields. This would have big implications on the functioning and funding of the W-6 and Pullman genebank activities, so we will be watching this development closely. A discussion regarding the budget annual 3% increase percentage over the 5-year budget regarding current inflation rate ensued. After the discussion the budget was agreed to and approved by the committee.

2:10 pm: Naidu Rayapati:

The Director (Naidu Rayapati) of the Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center (IAREC) in Prosser, WA, and hosting site for the annual meeting gave an overview of the host site (Prosser-IAREC) with close to 100-acres of research activities. It has 16 WSU faculty, 11 USDA-ARS, and 1 WSDA scientists. It has three research farms with close to 300 acres of land. It is one of the largest research centers within the WSU system. The center is equipped for all research and extension activities.

2:30 pm: Facilities Tour (only for onsite participants)

A tour of the W6 (Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Unit) USDA ARS local Prosser worksite programs facilities in Prosser was led. This included laboratories greenhouses and field sites for the two local programs led by Long-Xi Yu and Brian Irish.

4:30 pm:

Day 1 meeting adjourned.

Day 2, July 12, 2023

Research Presentations:

8:00 am: Charlie Brummer: Impact of NPGS on Alfalfa Cultivar Development

Historically, breeders talk about 9 historic introductions periods into the Americas. Some of these introductions were immediately added into the NPGS collection, while others, were not included immediately or never at all. Examples of these folks, Wendelin Grimm (1800s) and N.E. Hansen (1900s). Looking at the collection for both the purple and yellow flowers and how their availability in the NPGS system helping in the development of new cultivars. Old publications talk about all the early varieties of alfalfa. Then it was very clear where everything came from between the 50s and 70s. Registration of the early varieties were published, including Washoe, Florida 66, WL 214, and Desert. Indian germplasm was used in developing varieties as well. Currently, we know less and less about the role of NPGS germplasm in cultivars development because pedigrees are not a requirement in releases. Potato leaf hopper resistant cultivars were developed in the 1980 and were released in the 1990s by USDA/Kansas State University and Purdue University. In conclusion, early alfalfa introductions into the US involved germplasm that was/is in the NPGS collections. Most cultivars description do not indicate specific PIs used. The role on NPGS in supplying germplasm, including old cultivars, that ultimately leads to a new cultivar is unfortunately murky. Some clear examples exist of the value of the collection. A question about the system tracking of materials going back to the origin from they were collected or originated from.

8:30 am: Kevin Jensen: Impact of NPGS on Grass Cultivar Development

Grass is in every history of the country. The first collections came in from N.E. Hansen and there were 3-5 of them that went to Florida to be evaluated and they were included in the NPGS. In early 1900s with the Carey Act, Newlands Act, and others allowed the people to move into the Midwest and the West to utilize the lands there. About 100 million acres. Dust Bowl caused big losses in the 75% of topsoil loss. “Fairway” wheatgrass was released by N.E. Hansen and others, selected from original PI 19536. The entire west was seeded with the wheatgrass, which saved the west from drought and bringing it back to normalcy. In 1969 ‘Parkway’ cultivar was developed and the plant breeders started looking for traits. Then ‘Ruff’ was developed in 1974 with 3-cycles of selection. ‘Hycrest’ was developed in 1984 in response to other issues facing agriculture production in the west, including obnoxious weeds. Overtime, new varieties were developed using other plant introduction (PI) parents. Recent impact includes ~8,000 lbs stock seeds sold for ~$5,888,970 worth. A collection of varieties/accessions that was used in Kazakhstan for trials there in a region receives less than 5 inches of annual rainfall. Recent Impact of this work 11,313 lbs ‘Vavilov II’ and 1,463 lbs ‘Stabilizer’ stock seeds sold for ~$8,011,624. If you look at grasses, that was how many pounds it cost. I showed you what our grasses did as we went through, and more of a masses or natives, so they're not necessarily an PI system. The presentation focused on how the improvement and development of wheatgrass and Russian wildrye was linked to the NPGS. Also, how the meadow brome cultivar development is linked to the NPGS and its impact/importance in the Western Region grazing pastures. A discussion ensured regarding having a value for beef produced from these pastures, wildfires prevented and other benefits from having these breeding lines developed for the area.

Business Meeting:

8:55 am: WRPIS: Marilyn Warburton

The presentation started with basic introduction of the experiment stations of 13 land-grant universities in the Western region supply the funding from their Hatch (Federal) funding and the committee members as representatives of the land-grant universities + an advisory (Scott Hulbert) and WRPIS station coordinator (Marilyn Warburton). The presentation talked about the genetic resources management, mission related to PGR research/support and the budget breakdown (federal, W6 in-kind, and extramural funds). The presentation gave an overview of the major genetic resource programs (e.g., Agronomy, Phaseolus, Cool-season Food Legumes, Horticultural Crops, and Temperate-adapted Forage Legumes). The presentation highlighted the pathway program working with graduate students and their path for a permanent position after their graduation. The number of accessions for the 5 major curatorial programs and the assigned major crops at the WRPIS as June 2023 is presented in Figure (10). Staff availability has affected the ability to keep up with the large number of accessions and to keep them available for orders all the time.

*SOS seeds are not actively curated.

Figure (10): The five curatorial programs and assigned major groups at WRPIS as June 2023. (See graph in Attachments)

The total holdings currently stand at about 102,000 accessions in the genebanks, and they are increasing over the years. Over the last 12 years, 424,555 accessions were distributed out of 14,515 orders. A question to Peter Bretting was raised regarding the support needed from the W6 committee to ensure an increased financial support from the legislators in Washington, DC to the genebanks to continue the critical work they are doing, ensure expansion to include all accessions availability, and clear the backlog due to low staffing availability. Peter explained the effort in 2019 and 2020 (Farm Bill mandated NPGS Plan) and how the National Genetic Resources Advisory Committee (NGRAC) had reviewed the plan and provided significant input, which is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to advise him on it. Peter explained the process that the request has been going through so far. When the final review will happen was not clear yet, but there was hope for it to be made public soon. Peter also explained that they are following up on the process almost every-other-week to ensure its still in the pipeline.

Additional discussion was about the Stakeholder Liaison group started from stakeholders from each state in the region to act as advocates. A question regarding the liaison groups best time to reach out to congress and advocate on behalf of the committee. The answer was that the committee's job is to provide them with information only. Peter provided additional information about the best ways to approach the issues. A question was raised regarding what’s needed from the W6 committee annual meeting and what needs to be accomplished. Additionally hearing from the curators regarding their needs and how the committee can help. A decision was made to start the discussion via an email and plan for future Zoom meeting in about 6 months from now.

Figure (11): Statistics on WRPIS germplasm backed up at NLGRP (2022 data) (See in Attachments)

9:15 am: The topic of making the W6 project more sustainable and impactful was initiated. At this point, the discussion deviated from the agenda. The RTAC did not get to the discussion of the W6 Stakeholder Liaison group, the efforts of the WRPIS, the NLGRP in Fort Collins, and the National Program Leader for the NPGS to demonstrate impact of the genebank, and/or how the western genebanks could work better with the Agriculture Experiment Station Directors and others in the states of the Western Region. Instead, the question was asked about the efforts to create and present to Congress a Plan on what would be needed to fully fund and staff all the USDA ARS genebanks to avoid any backlogs in our core mission activities of collection, curation, regeneration, evaluation, characterization, and distribution of plant genetic resources of economic importance to the US. The “NATIONAL STRATEGIC GERMPLASM AND CULTIVAR COLLECTION ASSESSMENT AND UTILIZATION PLAN” was requested by Congress in the 2018 Farm Bill, and it was an effort led by Peter Bretting, National Program Leader for the NPGS, and colleagues from the NPGS. It has been approved by various scientific and stakeholder groups, and the necessary offices within the USDA and the federal government. Peter reports it has been given to the Secretary of Agriculture, who will be the one to present it to Congress. This will hopefully happen soon, and the full copy of this Plan (and its abbreviated version), once public, can be provided to the RTAC. If this Plan is fully resourced, the genebanks will be able to modernize, remove current risks to the collections and the curation activities; increase activities on phenotypic evaluation and genetic characterization; and initiate pre-breeding activities when needed. All this will be done in conjunction with US public and private institutions with an interest in seeing the genebanks and all associated data become more freely available. If funding from the Plan is not available, or not to the level requested, we can begin discussing our alternative strategies for increasing funding and resources at our December meeting, or next summer.

9:53 am: Elections of Vice Chair and Secretary

Kevin Jensen - agreed to continue serving as the W6 RTAC Chair

Amjad Ahmad - was nominated and elected to serve W6 RTAC Chair-Elect

Donna Harris - was nominated and elected to serve W6 RTAC Secretary

10:10 am: 2024 W6 Committee Meeting Location

A discussion regarding the location for 2024 committee meeting was initiated. Honolulu, HI, Prosser, WA and Logan, Utah were suggested as locations for the next meeting. Availability of stable internet connection to ensure the ability to have hybrid in-person and online meetings possible was important. Some discussion on reformatting the meeting was also initiated, but it was realized that we didn’t have time to complete the discussion and make decisions. Thus, it was decided at this point that we would hold another meeting towards the end of the year (probably in December 2023) to decide the location, format, and attendees of the 2024 meeting.

10:45 am: Adjourn business meeting.

“Field Tours” – for those on site

Dr. Per McCord, WSU IAREC Horticulture Department Stone Fruit Breeder and RTAC WA State Representative, provided the group a tour and overview of the cherry breeding program, the modern and recently installed computerized (AI) automatic fruit sorter, and fruit tasting, which was delicious.

During the lunch break a short presentation was provided by Research Geneticist (breeder), Kayla Altendorf of the USDA ARS Forage Seed and Cereal Research Unit worksite in Prosser. Presentation involved describing an introduction to the crop, importance of the local/regional growing area, about the plant and pollination biology, the breeding process and cycles and what traits the program is working with specifically. After lunch, the group visiting the Golden Gate hop farm facilities, part of the larger Hopsteiner Inc. farms. We met hop breeder Ryan Gregory, who provided some background on the history of the family-owned farm, some of the breeding objectives and a detailed tour of the hop processing facilities.

Accomplishments

<ul> <li>Short-term Outcomes: <ul> <li>We acquired 877 new accessions including 796 native plant accessions collected by the Seeds of Success (SOS) project, 67 expired IPR/CSR accessions from NCGRP, 11 Phaseolus polystachios accessions, 195 Medicago truncatula accessions received from INRA, France, and 3 other miscellaneous accessions.</li> <li>We distributed a total of 34,861 packets of seed samples to 525 requestors with addresses in each of the 47 domestic states and territories and 38 foreign countries. 55% (19,319 packets) were distributed to the U.S. and 46% (15,542 packets) were distributed internationally. A total of 8,767 packets from WRPIS went to the 13 U.S. Western states.</li> <li>We uploaded 169 observation data points on 136 accessions into the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN)-Global database. These data points are on 5 established descriptors for 2 different crop species. Our collaborators contributed 88% and WRPIS staff provided 12% of the evaluation data. The database is accessible by researchers worldwide via the internet. A total of 551 images were loaded on 422 accessions, 494 of them were seed images.</li> <li>We entered 3,763 seed viability records into GRIN-Global during the reporting period. The USDA ARS National Laboratory for Genetic Resource Preservation (NLGRP) in Fort Collins, CO tested 2,516 accessions and 1,245 accessions were tested by the Pullman staff.</li> <li>We shipped 1,632 seed inventories to the NLGRP (1,303 accessions were from the SOS collection) and no inventories were sent to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Svalbard, Norway for secured backup this year.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Outputs: <ul> <li>A total of 14 peer-reviewed journal articles and a PhD dissertation were published in 2022.</li> <li>The Cool Season Food Legume (CSFL) program published a collaborative high-throughput spectral reflectance method to select drought tolerant lentil accessions using a multispectral radiometer. Eleven lentil plants with high promise as donors of drought tolerance traits were identified from a total of 49 evaluated in a multi-year trial.</li> <li>The CSFL program and collaborators identified two new quantitative trait loci (QTL) providing resistance to Fusarium avenaceum in lentil, and two PIs (PI299116 and W627760) that were highly resistant. They also identified markers linked to host resistance in lentil to the pea aphid, and two highly resistant lentil accessions, PI 329157 LSP and PI 432085 LSP.</li> <li>The Agronomy program generated re-sequencing data for 864 safflower accessions from which single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) will be extracted to study population structure, relatedness, duplications, and uniqueness, and to create a panel of lines that can be studied via genome-wide association studies (GWAS).</li> <li>The Phaseolus program started a new lima bean project that supports regenerations, phenotyping, and genotyping of 700 lunatus in the collection. They also collected 11 new P. polystachios accessions from Florida and Georgia.</li> <li>The alfalfa genetics research program mapped genetic loci associated with verticillium wilt (VW) resistance in alfalfa populations and identified two candidate genes for disease resistance. The gene markers and protocols have been shared with alfalfa seed companies for marker assisted selection. The alfalfa genetics program also created a mapping resource for salt and drought stress and identified 84 SNP markers and putative candidate genes associated with stress resistance, and eight drought resistant lines, which have been shared with seed companies.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Activities: <ul> <li>The Horticulture crops program studied 150 accessions of 28 species of Lactuca germplasm from around the world via evaluation and genotyping, for a more accurate characterization of the collection. Several accessions were found to be misidentified and were corrected, resulting in adding 2 new species to the collection and expanding our diversity.</li> <li>The Pathology program worked to develop plant tissue culture procedures using the basal stem disk as the explant for in vitro propagation of virus free garlic. The program also worked on optimizing culturing conditions for high yield zoospore production in Aphanomyces euteiches strains to be used in future large scale lentil inoculation studies.</li> <li>Research into GWAS to identify markers, genes, and pathways associated with traits of interest is underway to create new methodologies to expand pathway analysis into self-pollinated crops for the first time, and markers linked to seed protein levels in peas have been identified.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Milestones: <ul> <li>Since this project is ongoing indefinitely, we meet our biggest milestone annually by maintaining the accessions and the data in the USDA ARS Western Regional Plant Introductions Station (WRPIS), also known as the Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research Unit (PGITRU) in a manner that allows the germplasm, and its associated information, to be freely accessible.</li> <li>One specific milestone for 2022 was the creation and approval of a new 5-year USDA ARS Project Plan for the PGITRU in National Program 301. An overview can be found at: <a href="https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/project/?accnNo=443951">https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/project/?accnNo=443951</a>.</li> </ul> </li> </ul>

Publications

Arkwazee, H.A., Wallace, L.T., Hart, J.P., Griffiths, P.D. and Myers, J.R., 2022. Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) of White Mold Resistance in Snap Bean. Genes, 13(12), p.2297. Atanda S.A., J. Steffes, Y. Lan, Md. A. Al Bari, J. Kim, M. Morales, J. Johnson, R.A. Saludares, H. Worral, L.Piche, A. Ross, M.A. Grusak, C. Coyne, R. McGee, J. Rao, N. Bandillo. 2022. A. Multi‐trait genomic prediction improves selection accuracy for enhancing seed mineral concentrations in pea. The Plant Genome. 2022 Dec 1:e20260. Carney M., J. d’Alpoim Guedes, E. Wohlgemuth, and S. Tushingham. 2022. Bulbs and biographies, pine nuts and palimpsests: exploring plant diversity and earth oven reuse at a Late Period Plateau site. Archeol. Anthropol. Sci. 14:130. DOI: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-022-01588-1">https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-022-01588-1</a> Clare, S. 2022. Genetic characterization of barley and Pyrenophora teres host pathogen interactions. Ph.D. thesis, Washington State University. Das S, Porter LD, Ma Y, Coyne CJ, Chaves‐Cordoba B, Naidu RA. 2022. Resistance in lentil (Lens culinaris) genetic resources to the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum). Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata. 170(8):755-69. He X, Zhang F, He F, Shen Y, Yu LX, Zhang T, Kang J. 2022. Accuracy of genomic selection for alfalfa biomass yield in two full-sib populations. Frontiers in Plant Science. 13. Heineck GC, Altendorf KR, Coyne CJ, Ma Y, McGee R, Porter LD. 2022. Phenotypic and Genetic Characterization of the Lentil Single Plant-Derived Core Collection for Resistance to Root Rot Caused by Fusarium avenaceum. Phytopathology. 112(9):1979-87. Jiang X, Yu A, Zhang F, Yang T, Wang C, Gao T, Yang Q, Yu LX, Wang Z, Kang J. 2022. Identification of QTL and candidate genes associated with biomass yield and Feed Quality in response to water deficit in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) using linkage mapping and RNA-Seq. Frontiers in Plant Science. 13. Jiao YX, He XF, Song R, Wang XM, Zhang H, Aili R, Chao YH, Shen YH, Yu LX, Zhang TJ, Jia SG. 2022. Recent structural variations in the Medicago chloroplast genomes and their horizontal transfer into nuclear chromosomes. Journal of Systematics and Evolution. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12900">https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12900</a>. Johnson RC, Love SL, Carver D, Irish BM. 2022. Using climate driven adaptive evolution to guide seed sourcing for restoration in a diverse North American herb‐shrub. Restoration Ecology. :e13856. Lin S, Niu Y, Medina CA, Yu LX. 2022. Two linked resistance genes function divergently in defense against Verticillium Wilt in Alfalfa. Plant Biotechnology Journal. (4):619. Long R, Zhang F, Zhang Z, Li M, Chen L, Wang X, Liu W, Zhang T, Yu LX, He F, Jiang X. 2022. Genome assembly of alfalfa cultivar zhongmu-4 and identification of SNPs associated with agronomic traits. Genomics, proteomics & bioinformatics. (1):14-28. McDonough, Katelyn N., Jaime L. Kennedy, Richard L. Rosencrance, Justin A. Holcomb, Dennis L. Jenkins, and Kathryn Puseman. 2022. Expanding Paleoindian Diet Breadth: Paleoethnobotany of Connley Cave 5, Oregon, USA. American Antiquity 87(2): 303–332. Mehlenbacher, S.A., B.J. Heilsnis, R.T. Mooneyham and J.W. Snelling. 2023. Breeding hazelnuts resistant to eastern filbert blight. Acta Hortic. 1362: 557-561. <a href="https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2023.1362.75">https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2023.1362.75</a>  Mehlenbacher, S.A., D.C. Smith, R.L. McCluskey, J.W. Snelling, T.J Molnar, and A. Clare. 2022. OSU 541.147 hazelnut. HortScience 58(3): 333-337.  <a href="https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI16987-22">https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI16987-22</a>    Nemchinov LG, Irish BM, Grinstead S, Shao J, Vieira P. 2022. Diversity of the virome associated with alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) in the US Pacific Northwest. Scientific Reports. 12(1):8726. Parker TA, Gallegos JA, Beaver J, Brick M, Brown JK, Cichy K, Debouck DG, Delgado‐Salinas A, Dohle S, Ernest E, de Jensen CE. 2022. Genetic resources and breeding priorities in Phaseolus beans: vulnerability, resilience, and future challenges. Plant Breeding Reviews. 46:289-420. Puig AS, Irish B, Ayala-Silva T, Wurzel S, Gutierrez O. 2022. Effect of Cacao Black Pod Rot Screening Method on Disease Reaction Determination. Chemistry Proceedings. 10(1):71. Qian, Y.L., Hua, G.K.H., Scott, J.C., Dung, J.K.S., and Qian, M.C. 2022. Evaluation of sulfur-based biostimulants for the germination of Sclerotium cepivorum sclerotia and their interaction with soil. J. Agric. Food Chem. 70:15038−15045.  Renzi JP, Coyne CJ, Berger J, Von Wettberg E, Nelson M, Ureta S, Hernández F, Smýkal P, Brus J. 2022. How could the use of crop wild relatives in breeding increase the adaptation of crops to marginal environments? Frontiers in Plant Science. 13. Revolinski S., P. Maughan, C. Coleman, I. Burke. 2023. Preadapted to adapt: underpinnings of adaptive plasticity revealed by the downy brome genome. Commun. Biol. 6:326.  DOI: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-04620-9">https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-04620-9</a>.  Travis A. Parker, Jorge Acosta Gallegos, James Beaver, Mark Brick, Judith K. Brown, Karen Cichy, Daniel G. Debouck, Alfonso Delgado-Salinas, Sarah Dohle, Emmalea Ernest, Consuelo Estevez de Jensen, Francisco Gomez, Barbara Hellier, Alexander V. Karasev, James D. Kelly, Phillip McClean, Phillip Miklas, James R. Myers, Juan M. Osorno, Julie S. Pasche, Marcial A. Pastor-Corrales, Timothy Porch, James R. Steadman, Carlos Urrea, Lyle Wallace, Christine H. Diepenbrock, Paul Gepts. 2022. Genetic resources and breeding priorities in Phaseolus beans: vulnerability, resilience, and future challenges. Plant Breeding Reviews, 46, pp.289-420. Wang Y, Li W, Wang L, Yan J, Lu G, Yang N, Xu J, Wang Y, Gui S, Chen G, Li S. 2022. Three types of genes underlying the Gametophyte factor1 locus cause unilateral cross incompatibility in maize. Nature Communications. 13(1):4498. Warburton ML, Jeffers D, Smith JS, Scapim C, Uhdre R, Thrash A, Williams WP. 2022. Comparative Analysis of Multiple GWAS Results Identifies Metabolic Pathways Associated with Resistance to A. flavus Infection and Aflatoxin Accumulation in Maize. Toxins. 14(11):738. Yang W, Guo T, Luo J, Zhang R, Zhao J, Warburton ML, Xiao Y, Yan J. 2022. Target-Oriented Prioritization: targeted selection strategy by integrating organismal and molecular traits through predictive analytics in breeding. Genome Biology. 23(1):80.

Impact Statements

WRPIS scientists and staff participated in 41 Research, Service and Outreach Activities, as reported in the Calendar Year 2022 - Activity Report sent to the W6 RTAC members prior to the July 2023 meeting.

Date of Annual Report: 10/14/2024

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 07/09/2024 - 07/10/2024
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2023 - 09/30/2024

Participants

Ahmad Amjad, U. of Hawaii, Manoa, HI. alobaby@hawaii.edu;
Brian Irish, ARS WRPIS, Pullman, WA. brian.irish@usda.gov;
Marilyn Warburton, ARS WRPIS, Pullman, WA. marilyn.warburton@usda.gov;
Kevin Jensen, ARS FRRL, Logan, UT. kevin.jensen@usda.gov;
Naveen Puppala, New Mexico State U., Clovis, NM. npuppala@nmsu.edu;
Joseph Kuhl, U. of Idaho, Moscow, ID. jkuhl@uidaho.edu;
Lisa Taylor, ARS WRPIS, Pullman, WA. lisa.taylor@ars.usda.gov;
Melinda Yerka, U. of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV. myerka@unl.edu;
Michael Giroux, Montana State U., Bozeman, MT. mgiroux@montana.edu;
Scot Hulbert, Washington State U., Pullman, WA. scot.hulbert@wsu.edu;
Christian Tobias, USDA NIFA, Beltsville, MD. christian.tobias@usda.gov;
Per McCord, Washington State U., Pullman, WA. phmccord@wsu.edu;
Gayle Volk, Acting as USDA-ARS National Program Leader, ARS NLGRP, Ft. Collins, CO. gayle.volk@usda.gov;
Shawn Bushman, ARS FRRU, Logan, UT. shawn.bushman@usda.gov;
Tara McHugh, ARS Pacific West Area Director, Albany, CA. tara.mchugh@usda.gov;
Harold Bockelman, ARS NSGC, Aberdeen, ID. harold.bockelman@usda.gov;
Lauri Reinhold, ARS NCGR, Corvallis, OR. lauri.reinhold@usda.gov;
Claire Heinitz, ARS NCGR/NALPGR, Davis/Parlier, CA. claire.heinitz@usda.gov;
Tracie Matsumoto, ARS TPGRD, Hilo, HI. tracie.matsumoto@usda.gov;
Robert Krueger, ARS NCGRCD, Riverside, CA. robert.krueger@usda.gov;
Gary Kinard, ARS NGRL, Beltsville, MD. gary.kinard@usda.gov;
Jakir Hasan, U of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK. mjhasan@alaska.edu;
Glenn Wright, U of Arizona, Yuma, AZ. gwright@cals.arizona.edu;
Donna Harris, U of Wyoming, Sheridan, WY. donna.harris@uwyo.edu;
Anna Murphy, Executive Vice President of the Beet Sugar Development Foundation;
& American Society of Sugar Beet Technologists. anna@bsdf-assbt.org;
Peter Ballerstedt, retired from Barenbrug USA. peter.vallerstedt@gmail.com;
Paul Galewski, ARS WRPIS, Pullman, WA. paul.galewski@usda.gov;

Brief Summary of Minutes

Full summary of minutes with full state reports can be found in the attachments section of the project's Homepage.

W6 Regional Technical Advisory Committee – Minutes

Day 1, July 9^th, 2024 (8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mountain Time)

Location: USDA ARS Forage and Range Research Unit, Utah State University, 696 North 1100 East, Logan Utah and virtually via Zoom.

Opening remarks:

Kevin Jensen (W6 Chair)

Kevin welcomed everyone. This was followed by a brief introduction of everyone attending the meeting. The agenda was approved.

Shawn Bushman (ARS FRRU)

Shawn gave an overview of the FRRU co-located with Utah State University in Logan, UT. There are four main objectives for the unit. These include developing forage and range plant varieties with increased resilience to climate change and environmental stresses, enhanced restoration outcomes and ecosystem services of rangelands, improved forage biomass and quality traits, and the development of genomic technologies for the improvement of reduced input turfgrass varieties.

Christian Tobias (USDA NIFA National Program Leader)

NIFA is in the process of modernizing their grants management systems and processes for internal and external stakeholders. Select programs will be piloted in 2025-2026. In 2024, we have a 3% decrease in discretionary funding and 11% increase in mandatory funding. Overall, the budget was flat. The increase was in urban indoor and emerging agriculture as well as scholarships for students at 1890 institutions. All grants require a data management plan. Manuscripts in their final form must be made freely available to the public within 12 months of being published through PubAg, hosted by the USDA National Agricultural Library.

Gayle Volk (Acting as USDA-ARS National Program Leader, ARS NLGRP)

NPGS has over 600,000 accessions from more than 17,000 species that it currently maintains, and this is still growing. NPGS distributes over 200,000 items annually. The budget is not good. For 2023, the budget was $54.5 million spread across all NPGS locations. The budget, when adjusted for inflation, is not going up and yet there are more accessions to maintain. The people and facilities are lacking to continue to regenerate this material and so accessions are aging. There are a lot of personnel changes across the locations. Challenges for NPGS include increased operational costs, personnel transitions, losing accessions due to a backlog of regenerations and viability testing, developing and acquiring cryopreservation and/or in vitro conservation for some species, and acquiring and preserving additional plant genetic resources (especially of crop wild relatives). The NPGS strategic plan was released in 2023, and it describes the status of all the NPGS sites, as well as all the collections with respect to all the responsibilities of NPGS and where they are falling short and what it is going to take financially to meet those needs. There are five headquarter funded 2-year Post Docs that have been promised to NPGS this year. There is also an ARSX $100,000 award for a germplasm project. The website has been created for educational resources around plant genetic resources conservation and use. Efforts are being made to compile NPGS success stories. These stories will go into an eBook as a chapter.

NLGRP Report: NLGRP does seed research, longevity research, maintains the large long-term collection of the entire NPGS, and also they have clonal programs to determine the kind of preservation and backup methods needed for their clonal collections and implement them.

Scot Hulbert (WSU W6 Administrative Advisor)

WSU upper administration has almost completely turned over including a new President (current president is retiring) and Provost. In the process of looking for more irrigated land for the W6 group. Thinks he has found the land needed. Forage positions both for WSU and USDA are currently open in Pullman. Budget explained by Marilyn. Asking for an increase of 5% to give back to Crop & Soil Sciences for administrative support that USDA uses.

Ahmad Amjad made the motion to approve the budget

Donna Harris seconded the motion

Discussion … increase in budget should be supported.

W6 2024 proposed budget was approved unanimously.

State Reports

California, Lisa Taylor

In 2020, there were 357 unique accessions ordered and in 2023 there were 1456 requested. In 2020, the intended uses for the germplasm included research, education and other while in 2024 the intended uses were research and education. Over both years, research was the top use. The increase in requests in accession for 2023 was largely lettuce. Companies were the largest requesters in 2020 and there were 43 unique requestors. In 2023, U.S. state agencies and universities were the largest requesters and there were 48 unique requestors. Lettuce was requested the most in both years primarily for breeding for disease resistance and other stressors. Phaseolus and alfalfa are also requested frequently in California.

Colorado, Lisa Taylor

Colorado had 655 unique accessions ordered in 2020 and 337 in 2023. In both years, the intended use was research, education, and other with research being the top use. Additionally, in both years, US companies were the biggest requester although there were more US state agencies and universities that requested in 2023 than in 2020. There were also 11 unique requestors in both years. The main requests for Colorado were cool season food legumes, dry beans, and sugar beets.

Idaho, Joeseph Kuhl

In 2020, 93 accessions were requested in Idaho from W6 Pullman, WA, from a total of 17 orders. In 2020, federal, state (including universities) and private individuals placed 2, 3 and 12 orders, respectively. The major user group (assessed by the number of items requested) in 2020 were private companies, requesting 12 of the 17 orders (split among 7 private entities). In past years USDA, ARS scientists have been the major user group, in 2020 only two federal agency orders were made. Among private companies Jennifer Trap requested 40 accessions (43% of total accessions), in 4 separate orders.

A total of 16 orders were placed from Idaho in 2023, close to the 17 orders placed in 2020. In 2023, 221 accessions were requested in Idaho from W6 Pullman, WA. Significantly more accessions were requested in 2023, compared to the 93 requested in 2020. It should be noted that in 2023 one order accounted for 121 accessions, 54% of the total requested. This larger order came from a private company, 25:2 Solutions, LLC, an agricultural technologies company located in Pocatello, Idaho. In 2020, no large orders (over 100 accessions) were placed. Private companies accounted for 9 of the 16 orders placed in 2023. Three state agencies and two federal agencies accounted for the remaining seven orders.

Montana, Michael Giroux

In 2023, there were six NPGS – W6 orders received from three unique recipients requesting a total of 60 accessions.

Recipients

Vladimir Kovalenko (MPG Ranch) – 34 lettuce accessions = research – how do they respond to elevated CO2 and are nutrients diluted under high CO2 conditions

Jessica Staha (Local Bounti) – 25 lettuce accessions – breeding or production

Tavin Wyrick (Sustainable oils) -1 tansy mustard accession

Nevada, Melinda Yerka

2020 Report:

Summary: Table 1 summarizes NV use of the NPGS in 2020 (which can be found in the attachment). Fourteen (10 in 2017, 15 in 2018, 13 in 2019) individuals from Nevada placed 26 orders (17 in 2017, 39 in 2018, 30 in 2019) and received 331 (91 in 2017, 2138 in 2018, 193 in 2019) accessions from the NPGS in 2020. Researchers at UNR continue to be the primary institutional users (215 accessions of 331, 65%). All users were contacted via email and 4 out of 14 responded. Users reported three manuscripts published in total.

2023 Report:

Summary: Table 1 summarizes NV use of the NPGS’s Pullman, WA gene bank in 2023 only (which can be found in the attachment). Four individuals from Nevada placed four orders and received 75 accessions. Researchers affiliated with the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE, including the University of Nevada System and the Desert Research Institute, DRI) were the only users. All users were contacted via email and 2 out of 4 responded. Users and my own searches on Web of Science reported/determined a total of 12 manuscripts published since 2020, including some that they had not reported previously.

New Mexico, Naveen Puppala

There have been three requests in New Mexico.

Dr. Charles Havlik from NMSU Ag. Science Center in Los Lunas; Watermelon, Corn & Beans. Purpose: Public education, demonstration and research use

Ms. Tara Jernigan – Educator from Lovington; Lettuce – Lactuca sativa. Purpose: Class instruction and garden for kids

Ms. Kristen Tran – Ledox highland farm from Mora; Alfalfa - Medicago sativa sub species sativa. Purpose: Research use

Oregon, Shaun Mehlenbacher – Not present and no report.

Utah, Kevin Jensen

In 2023, Utah had 4 requests and a total of 19 accessions distributed. One of those requests was for looking at different species for monarch butterfly habitat at the University of Utah. Daniel Winkler received the most accessions, and they were of bulbous bluegrass and Western wheatgrass. He is with the Forest Service, and they were looking in cup studies to see if these two species could compete with cheatgrass. In 2020, there were 2 request and a total of 39 accessions distributed. These accessions went to BYU and Utah State for research purposes.

Washington, Per McCord

2020 Report

Overview

Number of requesters: 108

Number of orders: 191

Number of items: 9280

Number of responders: 24 (22%)- No 2^nd email sent this year

Bad email addresses: 9

Representation:

US State agencies (1) and all universities (29): (5 responses)

Federal: 12 (5 responses)

US Commercial Company: 20 (9 responses)

Individual/non-profit: 46 (5) responses)

Total publications: 2 (including 1 submitted)

Highlights from 2020:

Solanum microdontum- Two accessions with Liberibacter resistance (USDA-ARS TTFVRU, Wapato)

Solanum chacoense, Solanum tuberosum- Introgression of self-compatibility, extraction of dihaploids from tetraploid breeding lines (USDA-ARS TTFRVU, Prosser)

Medicago spp. (too many to list J)- Development of improved germplasm with Phoma medicaginis resistance; development of DArTag DNA marker platform (USDA-ARS NTFLGRU, Prosser)

Phaseolus acutifolius, P. vulgaris- Identification of novel Pseudomonas resistance (Storm Seeds)

Malus domestica- Identification of apple cultivars suited for maritime climates (Muscle and Arm Farm, Whidbey Island)

2023 Report:

Overview

Number of requesters: 108

Number of orders: 120

Number of items: 5724

Representation:

US State agencies (1) and all universities (29): (5 responses)

Federal: 12 (5 responses)

US Commercial Company: 20 (9 responses)

Individual/non-profit: 46 (5) responses)

Total publications: 2 (including 1 submitted

Alaska, Jakir Hasan

Summary

The Western Regional Plant Introduction Station (WRPIS) received six requests between 2019 and 2022. The majority (67%) of the requests came from citizen scientists. These requestors intend to use accessories for breeding and research.

Alaskans received seeds for 24 accessions, which belonged to seven crop types. Rhubarb was the most requested germplasm, followed by lettuce.

Alaska 2019 germplasm requests

In 2019, the Western Regional Plant Introduction Station (WRPIS) received three germplasm requests from three different Alaskan residents. These requests were given the ID numbers 310564, 313318, and 315475. All three individuals had a keen interest in using the germplasm for plant breeding purposes. To fulfill the requests, the WRPIS distributed a total of 12 accessions of rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum L.), three accessions of Lactuca sativa, and one accession of Sporobolus compositus.

Alaska 2020 germplasm requests

In 2022, the Western Regional Plant Introduction Station (WRPIS) received one germplasm request (Order number 322690) for a line of giant catmint (Nepeta grandiflora). The requestor intends to use the germplasm in research to find the optimal species for the local rainforest climate.

Alaska 2022 germplasm requests

In 2022, the Western Regional Plant Introduction Station (WRPIS) received two germplasm requests from two Alaskan residents, identified as 341268 and 345080. Both showed an interest in utilizing the germplasm for plant breeding. To fulfill the requests, the WRPIS distributed five accessions, including one for each of Oxytropis arctica var. koyukukensis, Angelica lucida, and Trisetum spicatum, and five accessions for rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum L.).

Hawaii, Ahmad Amjad

2020 ORDERS:

Two orders (42 accessions) were placed in 2020. The two orders were from the University of Hawaii.

Species: Pisum sativum and Phaseolus vulgaris. The two orders were for genotype evaluation studies.

2023 ORDERS:

Three orders (15 accessions) were placed in 2023. Two were from the University of Hawaii and one order was from the National Tropical Botanical Garden.

Species: Phaseolus vulgaris, Lactuca sativa, and Bidens spp. Two orders are for genotype evaluation and one for morphological studies.

Quality: All orders were received in perfect condition.

Funds:

$40,000 Specialty Crop Block Grant to trial melons locally using GRIN genotypes for preliminary data.

Issues:

One small issue was with the request for two accessions listed in GRIN for Crescentia cujete (the calabash tree). Requested both accessions for variation. One curator wrote back to say that their tree had never produced fruit, and they didn't know why it was listed in NPGS (as of today both are still 'available' in GRIN). The other curator was amicable and sent me seeds but they arrived slightly moist with mold growing and did not germinate - one of the challenges of working with a more unusual species with fewer well-defined protocols for seed handling. This tree gets harder and harder to find, but remains an important part of the local cultural legacy. It would be great to see a backup of the two accessions to the Repository at PBARC

A pepper that was believed to be the parent to Ka’ala and Waialua and it came in with a virus. Hesitant to plant it for risk of introducing new virus to Hawaii.

Testimony:

Dr. James Keach: “I want to emphasize what a critical role the NPGS plays in research and breeding, both for myself and for others I work with. I see accessions from trials later being offered commercially for a range of crops and, as my own small projects indicate, there are vitally important sources of resistance to modern pest and disease threats. This is an incredible scientific resource and truly one of the gems of the US's investment in agriculture.”

Wyoming, Donna Harris

2020 Orders:

Use: Education

Smith, Isaiah, Cheyenne Botanic Gardens

Winterfat, onion, common bean

Showcase unusual species

Cowan, Sarah, Cowan Flowers

22 different species

Pollinator gardens, specifically Monarch Butterfly habitat species

Teaching classes to adults and children

Use: Research

Arrington, Matthew, Plenty Unlimited Inc

Bog Bilberry (Blueberry) (2)

Potential for indoor agriculture breeding efforts

Arrington, Matthew, Plenty Unlimited Inc

Rubber Dandelion (5)

DOD research project

Temte, John, CO2 Sync Inc.

Kentucky Bluegrass (20)

SBIR Grant looking at root growth

2023 Orders:

Use: Research

Harris, Donna, University of Wyoming-Sheridan R&E Center

370 accessions of alfalfa

Weevil resistance and quality traits

Vinarao, Grace, University of Wyoming-Sheridan R&E Center

Prairie junegrass, Idaho fescue, Bluebunch wheatgrass

Genetic diversity compared to local collections from NE Wyoming

Akiina, Price, University of Wyoming – Sheridan R&E Center

Popping bean parents for RIL population in development

Barth, Mckenzie, University of Wyoming

Intermediate wheatgrass/Kernza

Herbicide dose response

Arizona, Glenn Wright

There were nine orders placed in 2020. Twenty-two percent of these orders went to US companies, another 22% went to US state agencies and Universities, and 56% went to US individuals with no affiliation. In 2023, there were 6 orders places with 33% of these orders going to US companies, 50% going to US state agencies and Universities, and 17% went to US individuals with no affiliation. In both years, the largest use of the seeds was for variety development, genetic studies, and plant pathological investigations. In a survey of those that ordered seed it seemed that they are unaware of the limited resources that are available and that it is not feasible to increase accessions every year or every few years.

2023 Meeting Minute Approval

Meeting minutes from 2023 meeting were handed out.

Joseph Kuhl made the motion to approve the 2023 minutes

Ahmad Amjad seconded the motion

No discussion

2023 meeting minutes were approved unanimously.

Tara McHugh – ARS PWA Area Director (ARS Pacific West Area Director)

Tara provided the committee with an update around infrastructure within ARS. There are many facilities within ARS that are in need of repair and funding. A new metric is in place for maintenance of infrastructure. There is a new building in Pullman that will be used by ARS and WSU. A stakeholder meeting was held in Prosser, WA earlier this year and the need for infrastructure improvements there was consistently brought up. In the process of looking into the idea of changing Prosser from a work site to a location. This will give Prosser more opportunity for funding. Tara and Marilyn are looking into a geothermal project for next year to help save energy at the Central Ferry field station.

ARS Site Highlights in Western Region

Five-minute updates were given by Harold Bockelman (NSGC, Aberdeen, ID), Lauri Reinhold (NCGR, Corvalis, OR), Claire Heinitz (NCGR/NALPGR, Davis/Parlier, CA), Gayle Volk (NLGRP, Ft. Collins, CO), Tracie Matsumoto (TPGRD, Hilo, HI), Robert Krueger (NCGRCD, Riverside, CA), and Gary Kinard (NGRL, Beltsville, MD).

Introduction to stakeholders at meeting was made by Marilyn

An introduction of the stakeholders that were present was made. Peter Ballerstedt (retired from Barenbrug USA) and Anna Murphy (Executive Vice President of the Beet Sugar Development Foundation & American Society of Sugar Beet Technologists). A discussion on how the NPGS can gather input from the stakeholder liaison council on meeting their needs followed. Anna mentioned that maybe there is an opportunity for private seed companies to help with increasing accessions. Resources need to be put toward traits that stakeholders need and data collection methods/rating scales need to be standardized.

Discussion of new format for future W-6 meetings

Every other year the W6 meeting will be in Washington. The other year will be somewhere else. There will also be a virtual option every year. Would it be possible to get this meeting down to a day. Maybe one day of meetings and then another half day for tours. Site updates could be recorded, but representatives from each state should be live presentations.

Meeting adjourned for the day and location facilities tour followed at the following places.

Location Facilities tour

1) FRR labs and greenhouses (Shaun Bushman)

2) Compound (Kevin Jensen and Craig Rigby)

3) Evans Farm (Blair Waldron and Dylan Mills)

Day 2, July 10th, 2024 (8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mountain Time)

Research Presentations

Research presentations were given by Erin Tullius from Forage Genetics and by Kevin McPhee from Montana State University. The emphasis in both presentations was on the accessions that have been obtained from Pullman and how they have been deployed in the breeding programs.

Business Meeting

WRPIS Station Report, Marilyn Warburton

There are 102,127 accessions belonging to 997 genera, 4616 species (5268 taxa) in the WRPIS collection. W6 has 16% of the active NPGS accessions.

W6 acquired 699 new accessions including 586 native plant accessions collected by the Seeds of Success (SOS) project, 1 accession of Phaseolus acutifolius, and 112 expired IPR/CSR accessions from NCGRP. W6 transferred 89 accessions to active curatorial programs at other sites from the SOS native seed collection.

W6 distributed a total of 39,212 packets of seed samples in 730 orders to 555 unique requestors. These included shipments to 40 foreign countries (representing 44% of the distributions) and 47 US states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. 8,669 of these items went to 12 of the 13 western states (none went to Alaska).

Personnel

Several few key personnel changes occurred in both the federal and state-funded projects in CY 2023 and the first few months of 2024. The open plant technician position (WSU) in seed storage was filled by KungFang Chiang, and the open position in seed cleaning/seed storage (WSU position) was filled by Madison Hatley. In Prosser, the departure of the W-6 funded temperate adapted forage legume Technician left a vacancy now filled by Adriana Cifuentes. The ARS term Farmer in Central Ferry departed, and the position is temporarily being filled by Wyatt Keller, whom we hope to make permanent soon. The long running vacancy in the Unit’s ARS funded IT Specialist position (since 2020) was re-advertised, and candidates were interviewed for a second time. Several offers were made, and one is now pending security check and onboarding. The Horticultural Crops miscellaneous open Technician position (ARS) was replaced by a WSU (W-6) funded person (Sam Charpentier). With the departure of the WRPIS Farm Manager, the position was shifted from a WSU staff person to an ARS staff (Scott McGee), a veteran WRPIS person with the necessary experience. The Farm Assistant is now Griffin Stauffenberg (WSU). The Cool Season Food Legume Curator (ARS, Clarice Coyne) retired, and the position is currently vacant. The Alfalfa Research Geneticist (ARS, Long-Xi Yu) also retired, and the position is currently vacant. The Phaseolus (bean) Technician departed, and the position is being filled temporarily by Lauren Schutt (ARS). The pathology and laboratory manager position retired, and the position is being temporarily filled by Scott Mattinson (WSU) whom we hope to shift to the permanent ARS position soon.

Program Opportunities and Challenges

Working with WSU to identify more field space in Pullman to replace that lost to the airport expansion and WSU Grass Ecology farm (2016 and 2019).

The NPGS Strategic Plan highlighted increased pace of seed regenerations is needed to keep collections from dying; more field, greenhouse and growth chambers would be needed for that.

The current lab space in our temporary quarters in Clark Hall is too small so some projects put on hold until new building completed in Feb. 2026. Lab space in Prosser need upgraded.

Cold room and freezer space for collections is full and inadequate but new space will be available in the new ARS building.

Research and Service

Presented research as oral or poster presentations (some virtual) at 7 scientific conferences

Published 23 peer reviewed scientific journal and/or book chapters.

Reviewed research proposals for funding agencies and participated as subject matter experts in peer-reviews (grants, hiring committees, manuscripts reviews).

Hosted 12 groups of students or stakeholders in tours of the farm, seed cleaning, seed storage, laboratory and greenhouse facilities at Pullman, Prosser, and Central Ferry

Attended 17 meetings with stakeholders including private companies and growers, university scientists and administrators, non-profit, and national and international government groups

Participated in 5 exchange visits to other facilities or hosted others to ours

Other Accomplishments

NP215 5-year Project Plan approved by the Headquarters and Office of Scientific Quality, and we are operating on the new plan

Repair and Maintenance:

Replaced cooling pads on Pullman GH14-44 and both Central Ferry GHs

Replaced Plant Intro bubble house and Central Ferry GH coverings

LED greenhouse lighting for multiple GH bays (slowly replacing all lights)

Replaced the irrigation system at the Pullman Plant Intro farm

Rebuilt expanded irrigation system in GH 109A

Installed new rolling curtains on screenhouse 109B west

Replaced Pullman Farm shop lights

Stakeholder Relations

Have had 9 group stakeholder meetings in FY24 (primarily alfalfa, sugar beets, pulses, grasses, and native species)

Liaising with WSU and ARS on the 3 former alfalfa research positions at IAREC (vice Yu and 2 WSU positions)

Planning a field day at the Pullman Plant Introduction Farm in summer 2025

Unit and program 1 pagers have been created

Outreach

Eleven groups of students or stakeholders came to tour the farm, seed cleaning, seed storage, laboratory and greenhouse facilities at Pullman, Prosser, and Central Ferry

Guest lectured for 2 university courses

Reviewed research proposals for funding agencies and participated as subject matter experts in peer-reviews (grants, hiring committees, manuscripts reviews)

Planted The People’s Garden on the Pullman Plant Intro Farm to benefit local food pantries

Hosted 1 short term PhD student from IITA in Nigeria

Hired ~25 undergraduate students and hosted 2 student interns

Facilities Spending Plan

Of the $1.55 million for the Pullman location:

In FY24, we expect to spend ~$115,000 on repairs, and in FY25 we could spend over $431,500 if we had it.

Older greenhouses and screenhouses have benefited from increased attention in recent years. Next year we will concentrate on:

GH102 in Prosser, WA (reskinning with Lexan)

Headhouse 114-44, where the pathology screens are set up, inoculated, and scored, and provides storage for the pathology and one bean greenhouse

Central Ferry farm drying shed HVAC and geothermal heating of greenhouses

If funding exists, we need to upgrade the security system (cameras, digital locks and service) for the seed storage building (ARS safety and security assessment, March 2024).

RTAC Nominations for Secretary - 2025 meeting date/site

A nomination for secretary of the RTAC for 2025 was made. The representative from Alaska, Jakir Hasan, was nominated. The motion was made by Michael Giroux and seconded by Joseph Kuhl. All voted in favor.

Pullman, Washington was nominated at the site for the 2025 meeting. This motion was made by Joseph Kuhl and seconded by Donna Harris. All voted in favor.

The meeting is planned for the last full week of June (June 23^rd) tentatively (Wednesday and Thursday, June 25^th and 26^th).

Marilyn then discussed the NPGS Plan which was directed by the 2018 Farm Bill and what is in it and where it stands now.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:31 pm.

Accomplishments

Short-term Outcomes <ul> <li>There are 102,127 accessions belonging to 997 genera, 4616 species (5268 taxa) in the WRPIS collection. W6 has 16% of the active NPGS accessions. </li> </ul> <ul> <li>W6 acquired 699 new accessions including 586 native plant accessions collected by the Seeds of Success (SOS) project, 1 accession of Phaseolus acutifolius, and 112 expired IPR/CSR accessions from NCGRP. W6 transferred 89 accessions to active curatorial programs at other sites from the SOS native seed collection. </li> </ul> <ul> <li>W6 distributed a total of 39,212 packets of seed samples in 730 orders to 555 unique requestors. These included shipments to 40 foreign countries (representing 44% of the distributions) and 47 US states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. 8,669 of these items went to 12 of the 13 western states (none went to Alaska). </li> </ul> <ul> <li>W6 uploaded 1636 observation data points for 941 accessions and 653 images for 435 accessions into the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN)-Global database. </li> </ul> <ul> <li>W6 entered 1611 seed viability records into GRIN-Global during the reporting period. The National Laboratory for Genetic Resource Preservation (NLGRP) in Fort Collins, CO tested 1282 accessions and 329 were tested by our germination lab.</li> <li>W6 shipped 892 seed inventories to the National Laboratory for Genetic Resource Preservation (NLGRP), Fort Collins, CO. As of April 1, 2024: 78% of the W6 Germplasm collection is available to distribute and 80% of the W6 germplasm collection has a back-up inventory. </li> </ul> Outputs <ul> <li>A total of 23 peer reviewed scientific journal and/or book chapters were published in 2023.</li> <li>The Phaseolus program continues collaborating on a lima bean project that supports regenerations, phenotyping and genotyping of 700 P. lunatus in the collection. They also collected 13 new Phaseolus populations from southern New Mexico including P. acutifolius (8), P. filiformis (1), P. grayanus (3), and P. parvulus (1), which will be accessioned if they can be regenerated.</li> <li>Genotyping and evaluation completed for the non-dormant alfalfa (400 accessions) with DArTag and in collaboration with Breeding Insight and the University of California at Davis.</li> <li>The Agronomy program addressed the challenge of contamination of field plots by grass weeds by digitization pure seed samples (standards), which is currently underway. Contaminants can be identified and removed in the field by weeding or by identification of contaminated seed prior to germination or during seed cleaning using the newly organized database.</li> <li>The Seeds of Success program worked on assessment and evaluation of 5 different Astragalus species for field establishment and regeneration of seed lots, protocols which are not yet worked out for many native wild species. This work was submitted for publication.</li> <li>The Cool Season Food Legume program worked with collaborators to identify markers linked to host resistance in pea to the pea aphid; identify ten lines exhibiting good tolerance to high temperatures; and use the STAYGREEN locus sequence as a bar code to discriminate among Pisum fulvum accessions.</li> <li>The Horticultural Crops and Beta Program obtained Hybrid Exome Capture sequencing results to create a highly supported phylogeny of the genus Lactuca and the three breeding pools of L. sativa were verified.</li> <li>Research into GWAS to identify markers, genes, and pathways associated with traits of interest has yielded new methodologies to expand pathway analysis into self-pollinated crops for the first time, and markers linked to seed protein levels in lentils have been identified. </li> </ul> Milestones <ul> <li>Since this project is ongoing indefinitely, the biggest milestone each year is maintaining the accessions (as well as acquiring new accessions) and the data in the USDA-ARS Western Regional Plant Introductions Station (WRPIS), also known as the Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research Unit (PGITRU) in a manner that allows the germplasm, and its associated information, to be freely accessible.</li> </ul>

Publications

Ahmad, A.A.; Radovich, T.J.K.; Sugano, J.; Wang, K.-H.; Nguyen, H.V.; Uyeda, J.; Wages, S.; Tavares, K.; Kirk, E.; Kantar, M. Evaluating the Yield of Three Legume Crop Varieties under Hawaii’s Micro-Climates. Crops 2024, 4, 242–255. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/crops4020018">https://doi.org/10.3390/crops4020018</a>. Amin, M.N., Islam, M.M., Coyne, C.J., Carpenter-Boggs, L. and McGee, R.J., 2023. Spectral indices for characterizing lentil accessions in the dryland of Pacific Northwest. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-023-01614-8">https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-023-01614-8</a> Bailey, LN; Pereira, TJ; Sion, BD; Kobelt, L; Gentilcore, D; Antoninka, A; Bowker, MA. 2023. Providing context for advancements in Arctomecon californica conservation: a comprehensive literature review with case studies. Western North American Naturalist. 83(4):525-549. Chu, C., Hellier, B.C. and Dorn, K.M., 2023. Evaluation of NPGS Germplasm for Resistance to Sugar Beet Root Maggot, 2022. Arthropod Management Tests, 48(1), p.tsad002. Coyne, C., Eizenga, G.C., Warburton, M.L. and Liu, S., 2023. Plant Exploration—the ‘Why’ of the Frank N. Meyer Medal. CSA News, 68(5), pp.42-44. Dorn, K.M., Strausbaugh, C.A. and Galewski, P.J., 2022. Beet curly top resistance in USDA-ARS NPGS Plant Introduction lines, 2021. Plant Disease Management Reports, 165(16), pp.1-2. Galewski, P.J., Majumdar, R., Lebar, M.D., Strausbaugh, C.A. and Eujayl, I.A., 2023. Combined Omics Approaches Reveal Distinct Mechanisms of Resistance and/or Susceptibility in Sugar Beet Double Haploid Genotypes at Early Stages of Beet Curly Top Virus Infection. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24(19), p.15013. Gerry Herbert and Nancy Redfeather. 2023. Growing Table Grapes in Subtropical Hawaii Using Organic Practices. <a href="http://www.kawanuifarm.org/aloha-grape-lovers">https://www.kawanuifarm.org/aloha-grape-lovers.</a> Hale, C. O., Tillett, B. J., Martin, J. M., Hogg, A. C., Cook, J. P., & Giroux, M. J. (2024). The Grain Number Increase 1 alleles GNI-A1-105Y and -105K increase grain number in spring wheat. Crop Science, 1–11. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.21267">https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.21267</a> He, X., Zhang, X., Deng, Y., Yang, R., Yu, L.X., Jia, S. and Zhang, T., 2023. Structural Reorganization in Two Alfalfa Mitochondrial Genome Assemblies and Mitochondrial Evolution in Medicago Species. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24(24), p.17334. Interdisciplinary Plant Science Consortium, 2023. Inclusive collaboration across plant physiology and genomics: Now is the time! Plant Direct, 7(5), p.e493. Lin, S., Medina, C.A., Wang, G., Combs, D., Shewmaker, G., Fransen, S., Llewellyn, D., Norberg, S. and Yu, L.X., 2023. Identification of genetic loci associated with five agronomic traits in alfalfa using multi-environment trials. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 136(5), p.121. Mensing, S., Wang, W., Rhode, D., Kennett, D.J., Csank, A., Thomas, D.H., Briem, C., Harper, T.K.,Culleton, B.J., George, R.J. & Southon, J. Temporal and geographic extent of the late Holocene dry period in the central Great Basin, USA. Quaternary Science Reviews 300 (2023). Morris, J.B., Dierig, D., Heinitz, C., Hellier, B., Bradley, V. and Marek, L., 2023. Vulnerability of US new and industrial crop genetic resources. Industrial Crops and Products, 206, p.117364. Moya, Y.S., Medina, C., Herrera, B., Chamba, F., Yu, L.X., Xu, Z. and Samac, D.A., 2023. Genetic Mapping of Tolerance to Bacterial Stem Blight Caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae in Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). Plants, 13(1), p.110. Mugabe, D., Frieszell, C.M., Warburton, M.L., Coyne, C.J., Sari, H., Uhdre, R., Wallace, L., Ma, Y., Zheng, P., McGee, R.J. and Ganjyal, G.M., 2023. Kabuli chickpea seed quality diversity and preliminary genome‐wide association study identifies markers and potential candidate genes. Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment, 6(4), p.e20437. Nemchinov, L.G., Irish, B.M., Uschapovsky, I.V., Grinstead, S., Shao, J. and Postnikova, O.A., 2023. Composition of the alfalfa pathobiome in commercial fields. Frontiers in Microbiology, 14, p.1225781. Nemchinov, L.G., Irish, B.M., Grinstead, S. and Postnikova, O.A., 2023. Characterization of the seed virome of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L). Virology Journal, 20(1), p.96. Oviatt, C.G., Madsen, D.B., Rhode, D. & Davis, L.G. A critical assessment of claims that human footprints in the Lake Otero basin, New Mexico date to the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Research 111, 138-147 (2023). Parajuli, A., Brueggeman, R., Wagner, S., Warburton, M., Peel, M., Yu, L., See, D. and Zhang, Z., 2023. Bulked Target Capture Sequencing Identified Numerous Genetic Loci Associated with Alfalfa Growth Vigor During Inbreeding. Preprints 2023, 2023050898. Parajuli, A., Brueggeman, R., Wagner, S., Warburton, M., Peel, M., Yu, L., See, D. and Zhang, Z., 2023. Linking Phenotypes to Protein Characteristics in 3D Structures Predicted by Alphafold. Preprints 2023, 2023051102. <a href="https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1102.v1">https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.1102.v1</a> Postnikova, O.A., Irish, B.M., Eisenback, J. and Nemchinov, L.G., 2023. Snake River alfalfa virus, a persistent virus infecting alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) in Washington State, USA. Virology Journal, 20(1), p.32. Rahman, M.M., Porter, L.D., Ma, Y., Coyne, C.J., Zheng, P., Chaves‐Cordoba, B. and Naidu, R.A., 2023. Resistance in pea (Pisum sativum) genetic resources to the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, 171(6), pp.435-448. Rauf, S., M. Shehzad, F. Seerat, M.L. Warburton, and D.M. Malinowski. 2023. Genetic enhancement of soybean (Glycine max L.) germplasm for adaptability and productivity. SABRAO J. Breeding and Genetics 55(5). Singh, L., Wu, Y., McCurdy, J.D., Stewart, B.R., Warburton, M.L., Baldwin, B.S. and Dong, H., 2023. Genetic diversity and population structure of bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) revealed by genotyping-by-sequencing. Frontiers in Plant Science, 14, p.1155721. Thomas, D.H., Rhode, D., Millar, C.I., Kennett, D.J., Harper, T.K. & Mensing, S. Great Basin Survivance (USA): Challenges and Windfalls of the Neoglaciation / Late Holocene Dry Period (3100-1800 cal BP). American Antiquity 88, 402-418 (2023). Tillett, B. J., Vetch, J. M., Martin, J. M., & Giroux, M. J. (2024). Novel alleles of MFT-A and MFT-B1 appear to impact wheat preharvest sprouting in Triticum aestivum and Triticum turgidum ssp. durum. Cereal Chemistry, 1–9. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cche.10789">https://doi.org/10.1002/cche.10789</a> Volk, G.M., Carver, D., Irish, B.M., Marek, L., Frances, A., Greene, S., Khoury, C.K., Bamberg, J., del Rio, A., Warburton, M.L. and Bretting, P.K., 2023. Safeguarding plant genetic resources in the United States during global climate change. Crop Science, 63(4), pp.2274-2296. Weeden, N.F., Lavin, M., Abbo, S., Coyne, C.J. and McPhee, K., 2023. A hypervariable intron of the STAYGREEN locus provides excellent discrimination among Pisum fulvumaccessions and reveals evidence for a relatively recent hybridization event with Pisum sativum. Frontiers in Plant Science, 14, p.1233280. Zhao, D., Mejia-Guerra, K.M., Mollinari, M., Samac, D., Irish, B., Heller-Uszynska, K., Beil, C.T. and Sheehan, M.J., 2023, October. A public mid-density genotyping platform for alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). In Genetic Resources (Vol. 4, No. 8, pp. 55-63). Zhao, D., Sapkota, M., Lin, M., Beil, C. Sheehan, M., Greene, S. and Irish, B. 2023. Genetic diversity, population structure and taxonomic confirmation in annual medic (Medicago spp.) collections from Crimea, Ukraine. Frontiers in Plant Science. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2024.1339298">https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2024.1339298</a>

Impact Statements

Regeneration protocols have been optimized for native Seeds of Success-collected milkvetch (Astragalus spp.) which will be important for stakeholders in selecting germplasm for restoration and reclamation purposes in the western US.
One accession, PI 628276, of Pisum fulvum was identified as being highly resistant to pea aphid, a destructive pest and vector of PSbMV. This accession will be important for plant breeders where this pest is a large concern.
In collaboration with a group of public forage breeders, efforts to expand genomic resources for cultivated species of clover, material from 56 temperate perennial and warm annual crop wild relative clover accession species have been provided to the Joint Genome Institute for genome sequencing.
Fall 2023 to collect wild beans from southern New Mexico. Wild beans collected during the fall of 2023 in southern New Mexico all show important adaptation to heat and drought conditions and can be used as important parents in breeding programs.
Markers have been developed for marker-assisted selection of resistance to Verticillium wilt of alfalfa and Alfalfa breeding companies are now using them in their breeding programs.
Alfalfa accessions have been identified for drought and salt resistance. Eight drought resistant lines have been transferred to seed companies to be used as breeding materials for use in development of drought resistant alfalfa cultivars.
WRPIS scientists and staff participated in 44 Research, Service and Outreach Activities, as reported in the Calendar Year 2023. The activity report was sent to the W6 RTAC members prior to the July 2024 meeting.