Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The Plant Genetic Resources Unit hosted the Year 2003 Annual Regional Technical Advisory Committee (RTAC) meeting of NE-09 on May 22, 2003. Robert Bernatsky, as the new chairperson of the committee, called the meeting to order. Larry Robertson presented the PGRU report to the committee which included discussion of preservation and research highlights, personnel changes, improvements to facilities, and future directions and plans. The PGRU plant germplasm senior staff made progress reports on the conservation activities and research for vegetable and clonal germplasm conservation and the state of molecular diversity research in the unit. The apple rootstock and grape scion breeders also made presentations to update committee members on the development of their research programs. They were followed by a number of NE-09 committee members who made presentations about their research that is relevant to NE-09. The committee expressed the desire to have this type of meeting with presentations about research relevant to NE-09 every two or three years. The majority of the new business of the meeting addressed concern about continuation of the project and the pressures from some NE-09 directors about multistate project funding. A presentation will be made at the NERA summer meeting by the Director of the National Germplasm Resources Laboratory to inform the station directors of the relevance of the National Plant Germplasm to their stations. Also discussed was the new project proposal for a further five year extension of NE-09. Requests were made to the committee members for information concerning resource allocations and a list of publications relevant to NE-09.

A total of 189 orders for 2549 seed germplasm samples and 216 orders for 2545 germplasm cuttings were filled for clients and stakeholders in FY 2003. A large number of these samples were distributed in the northeast, 1468 samples for 98 orders were distributed to users in the states that are part of NE-09. Most of the samples of the clonal collection were cuttings but multiple samples of pollen and seeds of wild species as well as DNA and leaf samples for DNA extraction were sent. Delivery of germplasm to clients and stakeholders is the primary way in which the results of this CRISs activities are distributed to the public.

Seed regenerations of vegetable Brassicas, tomatoes, onions, and Cucurbits were completed for 497 accessions and 242 accessions will be grown for plants to store for seed production in 2004. A total of approximately 11,700 accessions of seed-propagated crops were successfully maintained during the past year. The future availability of this germplasm is therefore assured. The changeover to rental of bee hives instead of year-round maintenance of our own bee hives was successfully implemented which has resulted in the savings of approximately 0.9 of a technical support staff at little additional cost since the rental cost is mostly covered by the cost of supplies that were previously purchased to maintain hives. This arrangement provides flexibility in meeting requirements for pollinators while providing an additional staff for other critical regeneration activities and greenhouse requirements.

A germplasm collection for Physalis philadelphica conducted in five southern states of Mexico resulted in a major addition to the germplasm collection of tomatillo in the National Plant Germplasm System. Previously there were only 18 accessions of tomatillo in the collection, this mission added 107 accessions and greatly expanded the genetic diversity in the collection.

Planning for the collection of new grape germplasm has been initiated. The goal is to collect population samples across the geographic range of each North American wild grape species and to place into repositories a subset containing the majority of each species genetic variation. Foreign grape germplasm will be collected as opportunities arise and the effect of new treaties regulating the acquisition of biodiversity is decided. Planning for collection of new tomatillo and onion germplasm has been initiated and collection of Physalis in Guatemala will be conducted in November of 2005 in the Departments of Quiche, Huehuetenango, Guatemala, Chimaltenango, Sacatepequez, and Santa Rosa. Collection of cultivated onion will be mainly in the mountainous regions of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and the mission is planned to be conducted 2007.

Approximately 360 digital images were recorded from 190 accessions of tomato, onion and winter squash. These are being processed and will be loaded onto GRIN. Characterization data was recorded on 168 accessions of onions, tomato and Cole crops for minimal descriptor lists for loading on GRIN to enable stakeholders to better search for their requirements. In apple, 270 additional accessions were characterized with 25 descriptors. Morphological characterization with priority descriptors in grape is continuing with nearly 90% of the collection completed. Digital images were taken on 436 additional apple accessions bringing the total to 710. Disease resistance screening of seedlings from the collection of wild apple from China and Armenia as well as additional seedlings from Kazakhstan was completed in 2002/2003 as a result of the SCA with H. Aldwinckle. Preliminary results indicate that both fire blight and apple scab resistance is present in the genotypes tested. If durable, they could be important new sources of disease resistance genes for use in apple breeding programs. In 2002, 40% of the 1200 Central Asian seedlings of M. sieversii fruited and were characterized for horticultural traits. In 2003, we expect to have 65% of that population characterized. In addition, disease screening of 45 elite clones of M. sieversii that were collected in Kazakhstan in 1995 and 1996 was completed.

Molecular genetic studies have been initiated to 1) elucidate evolutionary relationships among wild grape species, 2) determine genetic population structure of North American grape species, and 3) determine intra- and inter-specific variation in biologically/ ecologically/economically important traits. The results will facilitate more effective ex-situ conservation of grape genetic diversity in the repositories and a more effective use of that diversity by researchers and breeders.

We adapted an assay to estimate tomato fruit quality (lycopene content) in high-throughput mode and designed molecular markers for several candidate genes in the lycopene biosynthetic pathway. These will be used to study the genetics of tomato nutraceutical quality through characterizing germplasm.

Broccoli and cauliflower are different botanical varieties of the same species (Brassica oleracea) with very different phenotypic traits. A molecular assay to distinguish between broccoli and cauliflower will be useful to curators because they wont have to wait until flowering (which sometimes takes two years or more) to determine whether a plant is broccoli or cauliflower. In collaboration with Thomas Bjorkman from Cornell University Hort Sciences, we continued work on testing the correlation between phenotype (broccoli versus cauliflower) and genotype at a locus that is a candidate for conferring cauliflower phenotype in B. oleracea. Results showed that the correlation was highly significant but genotype at this locus did not absolutely predict phenotype. We plan to continue this project by genotyping additional candidate loci for determining phenotype in populations segregating for phenotype.

Plant Breeding Reviews, Volume 29 which is a translation of two books from Russian to English with a third section on collection and evaluation of apple germplasm from Central Asia collected in 1989, 1993, 1995 and 1996 came out in print October 2002.

Outreach efforts to bring organic farmer groups and seed saver groups into our stakeholder base has been greatly strengthened by implementation of an RCA from Cornell University funded by IFAFS to support efforts with organic farmers, small farmers, and small seed producers in training and demonstrating small-scale seed production of heirlooms and improved public varieties of vegetables. PGRU conducted a workshop on seed saving in October 2003. Three community field days for seed saving of tomato were conducted in NY and additional community field days were conducted in October and November of 2002 for Crucifers, squash, and onions. PGRU developed and maintains a website for the public seed initiative that provides information for seed saving, breeding and results of vegetable variety trials conducted on organic farms.

Aldwinckle, H.S., P.L. Forsline, H.L Gustafson and M.V.B Reddy. 2002. Fire blight resistance Malus species from Sichuan (China), Russian Caucasus, Turkey and Germany. The 9th International Workshop on Fire Blight, New Zealand. Acta Horticulturae 590:369-372.


Forsline, P.L. and H.S. Aldwinckle. 2002. Natural occurrence of fire blight in USDA Apple collection after 10 years of observation. The 9th International Workshop on Fire Blight, New Zealand. Acta Horticulturae 590:351-357.


Forsline, P.L. H.S. Aldwinckle, E.E. Dickson, J. J. Luby, and S.C. Hokanson. 2003. Collection, Maintenance, Characterization and Utilization of Wild Apples of Central Asia, p. 1-61. In:

J. Janick, P. Forsline, E. Dickson, R. Way and M. Thompson (eds.). Horticultural Reviews, vol. 29. Wild apple and fruit trees of Central Asia. Wiley, New York.


Gethi, J.G., J.A. Labate, S. Kresovich, M.E. Smith, & K.R. Lamkey. 2002. SSR variation in important U.S. maize inbred lines. Crop Sci. 42:951-957.


Labate, J.A., K.R. Lamkey, S.E. Mitchell, S. Kresovich, H. Sullivan, and J.S.C. Smith. 2003. Molecular, agronomic, and phylogenetic aspects of Corn Belt Dent diversity. Crop Science 43: 80-91.


Labate, J.A. and L.D. Robertson. 2002. Genetic variation in heirloom versus modern tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) cultivars. p. 27 In Program for the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, NY Botanical Garden, NYC, NY.


Labate, J.A., S.M. Sheffer, and L.D. Robertson. 2002. Genotype variation in duplicate accessions of heirloom tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum) using eight microsatellite markers. p. 27-28 In Program for the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, NY Botanical Garden, NYC, NY.


Luby, J., P.L. Forsline, H.S. Aldwinckle, V. Bus and M. Geibel. 2001. Silk Road Apples  Collection, Evaluation, and Utilization of Malus sieversii from Central Asia. Proceedings paper from Workshop 11 "Collection, Utilization, and Preservation of Fruit Crop Genetic Resources-Some case studies". HortScience 36:225-231.