Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The NCERA-200 meeting was held November 2, 2011 in Ames, Iowa, from 9AM to 4PM. In an effort to gauge the inputs from the stakeholders, this years symposium featured representatives from agriculture-related industries, stakeholder groups, as well as agricultural experimental stations. The theme of the symposium was: Industry, Experimental Stations and Commodity Groups: Are They Serving the Expectations of Their Stakeholders? After a brief introduction by John Hill and David Wright, five speakers from diverse backgrounds covered a variety of refreshing topics. Specifically, Palle Pedersen from Syngenta Seed Protection discussed about the innovations needed to feed nine billion global population during the next 20 years. This is followed by Donn Cummings from Monsanto Life Sciences who urged closer University-Industry partnership to meet complex research and education challenges faced by the farmers and agricultural industries alike. The third speaker, Scott Heuchelin from Pioneer further deliberated the need by seed companies for academic research support from universities. After a brief break, the symposium resumed with Jennifer Jones from United Soybean Board reviewing the framework and the targets of farmer-driven soybean research. Finally, Joseph Colletti of Iowa State University categorized research and communication efforts made by land grant universities to meet the needs of stakeholders. The presentations were followed by a live discussion sessions in which the speakers answered many questions raised by the audience members concerning the various educational as well as research opportunities offered by the industrial groups. The committee is especially grateful to David Wright for the time and efforts he invested to make the symposium a great success. The committee further expressed the gratitude to the North Central Soybean Research Program for the unwavering financial support, which covered the cost of the room rental, as well as travel costs of the speakers. The business meeting took place in the afternoon, with participants from four different states (Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, and Tennessee). Steve Slack, the administrative advisor of NCERA 200, participated through a conference call, provided a brief update on the comments provided by the reviewers of the renewal proposal, and urged the participants to apply additional research support as a multi-state team. Representatives from the states then presented the research updates during the past year. The meeting adjourned at 4PM. The state reports are attached below. Two other states (Arkansas and Kentucky) provided written reports.

1. Discovery and characterization of a new virus from soybean fields in North Central region. Soybean vein necrosis virus (SVNV) was first discovered by several participants of NCERA 200: Dr. Ioannis Tzanetakis of University of Arkansas, Dr. Les Domier of University of Illinois, and Dr. Reza Hajimorad of University of Tennessee. This is a ambisense RNA virus transmitted by thrips vectors. Its exact economic rampification has yet to be carefully evaluated. Dr. Tzanetakis has carried out further research on this virus and gained additional insights about this virus. He noted that symptoms associated with SVNV are becoming progressively more prominent in Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois over the last several years. Dr. Tzanetakiss group has also reared single thrips colonies in the genus Frankliniella and Sericothrips which are being used for virus transmission. The confirmed that SVNV is indeed transmitted by members of these two genera but taxonomical verification of the vector is pending. They also examined the host range of SVNV by inoculating this virus onto a total of 24 plant species belonging to four families (Chenopodiaceae, Compositae, Leguminosae and Solanaceae). Among them, at least seven species other than soybean have been confirmed as SVNV hosts through mechanical transmission. The list includes: Tobacco (three species), morning glory, cowpea, pumpkin and chrysanthemum. Finally, Dr. Tzanetakis and colleagues have applied a new protein-nucleic acids hybrid technique that makes detection simpler and minimize the time of testing to only few hours. They also have experiments under way where they evaluate the reaction of elite material to early infection to the virus. At this point all material appears susceptible to the virus although the vast majority of the available genotypes are yet to be evaluated. 2. The development and optimization of virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) vectors for use in soybean genomics research. Genome-scale assessment of soybean gene functions has been difficult without a fast, high-throughput tool to knock down the expression of soybean genes. A number of collaborators in the NCERA 200 group have contributed to the continuous efforts to develop a VIGS vector based on Bean pod mottle virus (BPMV) usable for silencing soybean genes. The most recent version of the BPMV-based vector, developed by the collaborative group headed by Drs. John Hill and Steve Whitham has been highly successful. This vector is based upon an endemic BPMV virus isolate found in Desmodium illinoense in a relic prairie in central Iowa. A patent application has been filed on this vector and it is being distributed to over 50 soybean researchers under appropriate MTAs and permits. Furthermore, fragments of over 650 soybean genes of interest have been inserted into the VIGS vector for study of stress resistance. This vector has contributed to the characterization of a soybean resistant gene conferring resistant to soybean rust fungus. The most recent efforts have focused on using BPMV as a vector for revealing signaling networks in resistance to abiotic stress in soybeans. A cooperative interstate team includes Craig Grau (WI), Dean Malvick (MN), Melissa Mitchum (MO), Thomas Baum (ISU), Leonor Leandro (ISU) and Kerry Pedley (Ft. Detrick). Approximately 650 BPMV VIGS constructs have been developed and are catalogued on SoyBase. Data include clone names, target genes, target sequences, primer sequences, creator, and phenotype description. Information is available at http//www.soybase.org/vigsnotebook/ but at present is password protected and available only for the project participants. Other members of our group have also been developing VIGS vectors based on other viruses. For example, a VIGS vector based on Tobacco streak virus has been developed by Dr. Domiers group in Illinois and Dr. Ghabrials group in Kentucky. 3. Transgenic soybean plants resistant to three common viruses successfully generated. Virus infections frequently cause severe economic losses to soybean producers in Ohio and US. The main culprits are Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV), Bean pod mottle virus (BPMV), and Soybean mosaic virus (SMV). Each of these viruses contributes to yield losses but more importantly they cause seed coat mottling which directly impacts the sales of high quality food grade soybeans, one of Ohios top export crops. Dr. Feng Qu at The Ohio State University teamed up with scientists in University of Nebraska to generate transgenic soybean plants that confer resistance to all three viruses with a single transgene. Greenhouse experiments indicate that these transgenic plants are highly resistant to AMV, BPMV, and SMV, even when all three viruses are introduced into the plants simultaneously. The transgenic plants have been further assessed in field experiments and shown to retain the resistance levels.

Agrindotana, B.O., Ahonsia, M.O., Domier, L.L., Gray, M.E., Bradley, C.A. 2010. Application of Sequence-Independent Amplification (SIA) for the Identification of RNA Viruses in Bioenergy Crops. Journal of Virological Methods. 169(1):119-128. Bekal S., Domier, L.L., Niblack, T.L., and Lambert, K.N. 2011. Discovery and initial analysis of novel viral genomes in the soybean cyst nematode. Journal of General Virology 92(8):1870-1879 Damsteegt, V. D., Stone, A. L., Kuhlmann, M., Gildow, F. E., Domier, L. L., Sherman, D. J., Tian, B., and Schneider, W. L. 2011. Acquisition and transmissibility of U.S. Soybean dwarf virus isolates by the soybean aphid, Aphis glycines. Plant Disease 95:945-950. Domier, L.L., Hobbs, H.A., McCoppin, N.K., Bowen, C.R., Steinlage, T.A., Chang, S., Wang, Y., and Hartman, G.L. 2011. Multiple loci condition seed transmission of Soybean mosaic virus in soybean. Phytopathology 101:750-756. Richardson, M.L., Lagos, D.M., Mitchell, R.F., Hartman, G.L.,and Voegtlin, D.J. 2011. Life history and morphological plasticity of the soybean aphid, Aphis glycines. Entomol. Experim. Appl. 140: 139-145. Zhang, C., Bradshaw, J. D., Whitham, S. A., and Hill, J. H. 2010. The development of an efficient multipurpose Bean pod mottle virus viral vector set for foreign gene expression and RNA silencing. Plant Physiol. 153:52-65. Pandey, A. K., Yang, C., Zhang, C., Graham, M., Horstman, H. D., Lee, Y., Zabotina, O. A., Hill, J. H., Pedley, K. F., and Whitham, S. A. 2011. Functional analysis of the Asian soybean rust resistance pathway mediated by Rpp2. MPMI 24:194-206. Hajimorad, M. R., Wen, R.-H., Eggenberger, A. L., Hill, J. H., and Saghai Maroof, M. A. 2011. Experimental Adaptation of an RNA Virus Mimics Natural Evolution. J. Virol. 85:2557-2564. Liu, J. Z., Horstman, H. D., Braun, E., Graham, M. A., Zhang, C., Navarre, D., Qiu, W. L., Lee, Y., Nettleton, D., Hill, J. H., and Whitham, S. A. 2011. Soybean homologs of MPK4 negatively regulate defense responses and positively regulate growth and development. Plant Physiol. In press. doi: 10.1104/pp.111.185686 Pandey, A. K., Yang, C., Zhang, C., Graham, M. A., Horstman, H. D., Lee, Y., Zabotina, O. A., Hill, J. H., Pedley, K. F., and Whitham, S. A. 2011. Functional analysis of the Asian soybean rust resistance pathway mediated by Rpp2. Mol. Plant Microbe Interact. 24: 194206. doi: 10.1094/MPMI-08-10-0187 (Highlighted as the Editors Pick for the February 2011 issue of Mol. Plant Microbe Interactions) Bradshaw, J. D., Zhang, C., Hill, J. H., and Rice, M. E. 2011. Landscape epidemiology of Bean pod mottle comovirus: Molecular evidence of heterogeneous sources. Arch Virol. 156:1615-1619. He, B., Hill, J. H., and Hajimorad, M. R. 2011. Factors to improve detection of Alfalfa mosaic virus in soybean. Online. Plant Health Progress doi: 10.1094/PHP-2010-0926-02-RS. Haidi, B., Bradshaw, J., Rice, M., and Hill, J. Bean leaf beetle (Coleoptera:Chrysomelidae) and Bean pod mottle virus in soybean: Biology, ecology, and management. Journal of Integrated Pest Management. In press. Zhang, C., Whitham, S. A., Hill, J. H. 2011. Virus-induced gene silencing in soybean and common bean. In Methods in Molecular Biology. Edited by A. Becker. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. In press. Pandey, A. K., Yang, C., Zhang, C., Pedley, K. F., Graham, M., Hill, J. H., and Whitham, S. A. 2010. Identification of soybean genes that contributes to Rpp2-mediated defense against Asian soybean rust using VIGS. Phytopathology 100:S96. Pedley, K. F., Pandey, A. I., Kendrick, M. D., Zhang, C., Graham, M. A., Whitham, S. A., and Hill, J. H. 2011. Functional analysis of Asian soybean rust resistance pathways using virus-induced gene silencing. Phytopathology 101:S139. Pandey, A. K., Yang, C., Zhang, C., Graham, M. A., Hill, J. H., Pedley, K. F., and Whitham, S. A. 2011. Functional analysis of the Rpp2-mediated Asian soybean rust disease resistance pathway. American Society of Plant Biologists. Abs. # 19057. http://abstracts.aspb.org/pb2011/public/P19/P19057.html Diaz-Camino C, Annamalai P, Sanchez F, Kachroo A, Ghabrial SA. 2011. An effective virus-based gene silencing method for functional genomics studies in common bean. Plant Methods 2011, 7:16. Singh AK, Fu DQ, El-Habbak M, Navarre D, Ghabrial S, Kachroo A. 2011. Silencing genes encoding omega-3 fatty acid desaturase alters seed size and accumulation of Bean pod mottle virus in soybean. Mol Plant Microbe Interact, 24:506-515. Soria-Guerra, R. E., Rosales-Mendoza, S., Chang, S., Haudenshield, J. S., Rao, S. S., Hartman, G. L., Ghabrial, S. A. and Korban, S. S. 2010. Identifying differentially expressed genes in leaves of Glycine tomentella in the presence of the fungal pathogen Phakopsora pachyrhizi. Planta 232:11811189 Soria-Guerra, R. E., Rosales-Mendoza, S., Chang, S., Haudenshield, J. S., Annamalai, P., Rodriguez-Zas, S., Hartman, G. L., Ghabrial, S. A. and Korban, S. S. 2010. Transcriptome analysis of resistant and susceptible genotypes of Glycine tomentella during Phakopsora pachyrhizi infection reveals novel rust resistance genes. Theor. Appl. Genet. 120, 1315-1333. McDonald, M., Kendall, A., Bian, W., McCullough, I, Lio, E., Havens, W. M., Ghabrial, S. A., Stubbs, G. 2010. Architecture of the potyviruses. Virology 405, 309-313. Jun, Tae-Hwan, M.A. Rouf Mian and Andrew P. Michel. 2011. Genetic mapping revealed two loci for soybean aphid resistance in PI 567301B. Theor. Appl. Genet. (In press). Xiuchun Zhang, Shirley Sato, Xiaohong Ye, Anne E. Dorrance, T. Jack Morris, Thomas E. Clemente, and Feng Qu. 2011. Robust RNAi-based resistance to mixed infection of three viruses in soybean plants expressing separate short hairpins from a single transgene. Phytopathology (in press).