Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

W-6 Regional TAC meeting - June 19th, 2009 Meeting started at 8:25 am The meeting was conducted as a telephone/video conference. Some conferees used video connections, organized through the Western Regional Plant Introduction Station and the rest of the participants were connected by phone. Review of 2008 minutes Motion to approve minutes with minor modifications - Ian Ray Seconded - Bob Zemetra Minutes were approved by unanimous vote Motion - Bob Zemetra nomination to be Secretary - Shawn Muhlenbacher Seconded - Ian Ray Motion approved by unanimous vote Resolution committee Kim Hummer and Shawn Muhlenbacher - Organization resolution - National Clean Plant Network - Resolution 2 was successful - Resolution 3 repeat? Advocate increasing base funding for all NPGS stations Directors Report and Budget - Ralph Cavalieri Hope experiment on teleconference works due to western state budget issues this year. Status of W-6 project - new project submitted and accepted June 16th. Duration of the new project is from October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2014. Need to file annual report within 60 days (Dan, Bob and Jinguo). Need to emphasize impact in report. Budget request ($395,660) that was approved last year was approved by Western State Agriculture Experiment Directors at level requested. Report from National Program - Peter Bretting, Ann Marie Thro, Andrew Hammond Highlights from submitted report: Personnel changes, - Allan Brown going to NCSU so Parlier position open but search is occurring - Palmer Alaska position is filled (see report) - Davis position in open but advertised - Parlier position search has closed Site developments - System shipped 10,000 accessions to Norway storage unit - Starting to transform GRIN to GRIN-Global through collaborative funding, will reach half way point in process this month Budget - FY09 budget restored cuts from Bush administration, additional funds to some stations from stimulus funds to improve existing structures, some is going to Riverside - FY10 budget submitted to Congress, mark-up by House last week showed a small increase for ARS (3 million dollars). - Budgets for western regional sites were increased due to internal budget reallocation (Davis and Pullman). Funds came from other ARS projects to germplasm programs. New Administration priorities - Nutrition - Specialty crops - Global food security - Climate change - Livestock diseases and plant pathogens - Change in CREES to National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) National Programs - Review cycle - Next review cycle starts 2011 National Plant Germplasm Coordinating Committee - Key issue, emphasize importance of germplasm system - targeting Ag Experiment Stations - Lee Somers rep from Western Region, Dan Upchurch - New Mexico - Meets annually, last year in Fort Collins, CO and will be meeting in Beltsville MD this June International Germplasm Exchange - FAO International Treaty still in Senate review (submitted last year), might hold hearings this summer or fall. Signed by Bush 2002 - International exchange and benefits regime on biodiversity, writing of agreement has started. U.S. is not part of the program - Key for businesses dealing with germplasm is that there be a set of accepted rules for utilization of germplasm that they can follow and not run afoul of rule variability from country to country Report from CREES Ann Marie Thro Highlights of Powerpoint presentation: News from REE Mission Area - New undersecretary - Rajiv Shah - New REEO - Catherine Parks (Forest Service) News from CSREES - New institute - no new director yet (presidential appointment)  starts Oct. 1, 2009 - New grant program AFRI President's budget no increase in Hatch or AFRI, Research areas that were increasing or stable include: organic (increasing), biomass (increasing), specialty crops (stable) Increases for small businesses (sustainable agriculture) Education - Challenge grants W-6 Hatch funds showed increase in 2007 but major increase due to no earmarks that year Important to communicate work especially with this administration - CRIS reports - Important to code for genetic resources and plant breeding KA 202 plus additional codes to fully describe work Cite Hatch funds when citing support, not just citing Agricultural Experiment Station Discussion occurred on how to cite Hatch and problems with grants.gov. Area Director Pacific West Area ARS Andrew Hammond - Partnership between ARS and Experiment Stations - ARS redirected some funds to Pullman $250,000 and $90,000 to Davis - Closing date on Davis position - July 6th Break - 9:50 Harold Bockelman - Aberdeen - 135,000 samples in collection - still growing - Distributed 56,000 samples - 703 requests June 2008 to June 2009 - Increase in number of requests from non-researchers - 30% go to researchers outside of U.S. - Contributed large samples to Norway seed vault (18,000 samples) - Effort to respond to UG99 stem rust - coordinating large Kenya screening nursery - Working on GRIN-Global - funding from Global Crop Diversity Trust Kim Hummer - Corvallis Highlights of submitted report: - Record number of requests over the last four years - Increased 150% this year - Increase in number of requests from non-researchers - At limit of ability to handle requests - Number of accessions are increasing (ex. 150 new hop accessions) - Funding and staffing are increasingly challenging (flat line of funding = reduced staffing) - Accomplishments (check first page of report) - Received two SCRI grants - Joseph Postman - National Clean Plant Network - new program to preserve small fruit and grape germplasm (20 million dollars - 5 million per year, first year funded but remaining 3 years may be lost) - Excellent outreach events Malli Aradhya - Davis report Highlights of submitted report: - Dozen genera in collection - Grape phenotyping and genotyping 1300 - Germplasm collection on walnut and other species - Genotyping walnut collection - develop juvenile selection method (SNP's) - Uploaded large amount of data into GRIN - Work on olive, genotyping and established a new block of olive germplasm - Screening of wild walnut germplasm for disease resistance - Molecular fingerprinting Prunus species (dozen micro-satellites) - Field days held on fig, pomegranate and persimmons - The Research Leader position has been vacant since April 2008 and Dr. Daniel Kluepfel (RL of the Crops Pathology and Genetics Research Unit, ARS Davis, CA) has been serving as acting RL/Curator since April 2008. The RL position has been advertized as a category 1 scientist position with a closing date of July 6, 2009. - The management responsibility for Parlier was added to Davis in October 2008 - The recruitment for the Parlier curator is underway - Funding for the Davis program has been static. A $90,000 increase was approved in 2009 to support the new research leader. - Facilities are currently full (greenhouse, screen house and field) - New security system has been installed - All field collections are now under irrigation - Accession increase shown on pages 4 and 5 - Has put an emphasis on phenotyping Francis Zee - Hilo report Highlights of submitted report: - Work has been progressing at the station - PBARC site is progressing, adding 3 new scientists (pathologist, entomologist and molecular geneticist) - In process of regenerating collection (program nearing 20 years) - Cacoa and Avocado collections being established, avocado using root stocks and will serve as a back-up for Miami - Working on developing cooperative agreement with China - Medicinal herbal collection potentially available from China - SCRI grant with Corvallis and UH on Ohelo berry Bonnie Furman - Alaska report Highlights of submitted report: - Seed collection not well organized and had poor germination (40% non-viable) with 20% possibly had dormancy issues - Issues with seed handling have been corrected - 85 accessions now available - Clonal collections in better shape (rhubarb) - Low number of requests Jinguo Hu - W-6 Pullman Highlights of submitted report: - As of May 29, 2009, there were 80,914 accessions comprising 797 genera, 3,642 species (3,970 taxa) in the WRPIS collection - Distributions increased to a record high number of 28,592 seed packets (17,740 accessions) to 730 requesters in 983 seed orders. Among them, 17,433 (61%) packets were sent to addresses in the USA and 11,159 (39%) packets to foreign countries - 30,194 observation data points of 161 descriptors of 21 crops on 5,457 accessions were entered into GRIN in 2008. Ninety-eight percent of the data came from personnel at our station and the remaining two percent came from our cooperators - Three international collection trips were conducted and 1,136 new inventories were acquired - 852 seed inventories were shipped to the NCGRP, Ford Collins, Colorado and 2,343 inventories were sent to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Longyearbyen, Svalbard for secured backup Richard Lee- Riverside Highlights of submitted report: - Powerpoint presentation (similar to written report) - Adding a support technician, and a new administrative assistant - Collection of collections - 1,100 accessions - most diverse collection in the world - Protected collection in screen house - 425 accessions - Date palm collection, Brawley site coming to end of its usefulness - 564 distributions in 2008, lower than 2007 but 2009 already above 2008 numbers - Adding information to GRIN - Doing survey for HLB - Murraya paniculata plant carries disease (greening disease) spread by cyllid Discussion on how to address number of non-research and foreign requests overloading the system. Ideas included limiting number of requests, adding a handling charge, though some people who do make requests cover some of the shipping costs. The NPGS can't, by rule, assess a charge on filling germplasm request. So is it a question concerning the balance of research verses service? Rate of shipment could be slowed or prioritized? W-6 Budget Proposed FY 11 funding increase (about $9,600), is this feasible with the current budget situation? Will federal funds be increased as proposed in budget for FY-11? Motion to approve FY 11 W-6 budget request - S. Mulhenbacher Second - Ian Ray Vote - unanimous State Reports California - Dan Parfitt (See start report for specific information) 162 requesters - similar to previous years Responses - about 15% See report - Concerns about funding to maintain clonal collections Colorado - Mark Brick (See start report for specific information) - 724 accessions - 29 individuals slight decrease over previous year Hawaii - John Cho - no report, he has retired and has requested that the Experiment Station Director appoint a new representative. Idaho - Bob Zemetra (See start report for specific information) - 7,487 accessions were requested covering 57 genera and 109 species an increase in accessions, genera and species over the previous year - Requests came from 31 individuals with 14 being from the public sector and 17 from the private sector - The species with the largest request was Triticum aestivum - The most requested crop species mirrored the predominant crops in the state, barley, wheat, sugarbeets, dry beans and potatoes Montana - Jack Martin (See start report for specific information) - 969 accessions/13 individuals  9 associated with Montana State University/ARS - Mostly wheat and oats - Wheat for vernalization gene research - Oat core collection - looking at resistance to sawfly in oats - Wheat isolines for puroindoline gene research - Corn - for disease research, foliar diseases and transgenics New Mexico - Ian Ray (See start report for specific information) - 216 accessions - 11 individuals (70% associated with breeding companies) - Primary requests peanuts and cotton - Chili pepper research - disease resistance and extended shelf life - Biofuel crops - amaranth - Seeds of Change company - organic ag market - See report Oregon - Shawn Muhlenbacher (See start report for specific information) - Material requests are from plant breeders - White mold in beans, anthrocyanin production in tomatoes  J. Myers - Hazelnut program has released a few cultivars and pollenizers (resistance to Eastern Filbert blight) - See report Utah - Kevin Jensen - See report (not present) Washington - Stephen Jones - See report (not present) - 155 orders  received 27 responses (20%) - 19 of the responses from WSU Wyoming - Robin Groose - No report Old Business Future Meeting Locations: - Geneva, New York August 16th - August 23th, 2010 - Motion to accept the invitation by NE Region PI station to host a joint meeting of the 4 regional projects - moved by S. Muhlenbacher - Second - B. Zemetra - Discussion - can we have a teleconference from Geneva for the Western Region meeting? For the members that cannot attend the meeting in person? - Resolution passed unanimously - -- 2011 meeting in Pullman, WA in July, 2011 - Motion by Bob Zemetra - Second  Mark Brick - Passed unanimously Resolutions - 1st resolution - The W-6 Technical Committee thanks Jinguo Hu, and the W-6 staff, including Jannis Bacani, Gwen Pentecost, and Dave Tibbals for organizing, coordinating and providing technical-support for the first W-6 annual meeting as a video/teleconference. Move to accept the first resolution - R. Zemetra Seconded - S. Mulhenbacher Passed unanimously 2nd resolution - Be it resolved that the W6 Technical Committee advocates increasing the level of federal base funding of all units of the National Plant Germplasm system to ensure adequate funding to pursue its obligations of distribution and maintenance of plant germplasm. Moved - Ian Ray Seconded - Jack Martin Passed unanimously 3rd resolution - Whereas clonal germplasm conservation is a critical component of the U.S. National Clean Plant Network, and pathogen tested germplasm enhances the security and productivity of U.S. nurseries and fruit producers, the W-6 Technical Advisory Committee encourages continued funding for this important multi-agency USDA program which benefits our National Plant Germplasm System as well as its stakeholders Moved - Ian Ray Seconded - R. Zemetra Passed unanimously Discussion centered on whether the Clean Plant Networks activities fell within the purview of the W-6 Technical Committee. Dr. Parfitt had significant reservations concerning this point, noting that the Clean Plant Network is not part of the National Plant Germplasm System and is funded through several channels, separate from NPGS. New Business - none - Ian Ray suggested that it would be useful to survey the meeting participants on their observations re: the video/teleconference. - Dave Stout will prepare a template for solicitation for information from germplasm program users. Motion to adjourn Moved - M. Brick Seconded - S. Mulhenbacher Passed unanimously Meeting adjourned at 3:40 pm To view the complete state reports submitted for this meeting: Go to the W-006 Homepage at: http://nimss.umd.edu/homepages/attachs.cfm?trackID=11296

1. The first winter hardy safflower lines were released by WRPIS Research Agronomist, Dr. Richard Johnson. These are potentially useful in many semi-arid regions as a winter annual broadleaf, which is critically needed in wheat rotations. We demonstrated the winter safflower production yield advantage at several dryland locations. The observed yield advantage of fall sowing winter type safflower were 66%, 48% and 83% over the spring sowing safflower in Pendleton OR, Pullman, WA and Central Ferry, WA, respectively. Most of the yield increase came from the development of additional seeds/head in fall sown winter types. 2. Working with scientists from the USDA-ARS, Washington State University, and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India, WRPIS Research entomologist Stephen Clement developed a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population with an insect-resistant wild chickpea accession and an insect susceptible accession from the WRPIS chickpea collection. Preliminary experimental data revealed that beet armyworm larval fed on selected RIL showed significant differences in body weights and mortality. In 2008, we completed this three-year, USAID funded research project and the developed insect-resistant chickpea germplasm and the RIL population were transferred to ICRISAT for expanded evaluation throughout India and other countries. 3. Ascochyta blight is a devastating disease and causes heavy yield losses of chickpea crops. The common practice of controlling this disease is by foliar fungicide applications that may not prove cost-effective. In collaboration with researchers in Washington State University and the ARS Grain Legume Genetics Research Unit, Pullman, WA, WRPIS Research Plant Pathologist, Frank Dugan, demonstrated biological control of Ascochyta blight of chickpea can be achieved by the application of a common, soil- and leaf-inhabiting fungus to post-harvest debris of the previous season. This biological control method offers an environmental-friendly approach for mitigating Ascochyta blight damage. 4. Identification and documentation of pathogens are important for the development of concomitant disease management strategies. WRPIS Research Plant Pathologist, Frank Dugan, in collaboration with university and other ARS researchers, demonstrated that powdery mildew pathogens infecting legumes in the Northwest belong to at least three species, not just one species as formerly assumed. This finding has strong implications for breeding for resistance to powdery mildew disease since resistant genes to each of the three pathogen species may be required to achieve high levels of resistance. 5. WRPIS Research Geneticist, Jinguo Hu, in collaboration with our cool season food legume curator Clare Coyne and Professor Bill Pan at Washington State University, identified several faba bean accessions with high levels of winter hardiness. The initial experiment was a field experiment at two sites (Pullman and Central Ferry, WA). Hardy accessions survived through a harsh winter and have the potential to be developed into an alternative winter cover crop for the northwest wheat production region.