Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Participants and Minutes: 

https://www.ars.usda.gov/southeast-area/griffin-ga/pgrcu/docs/s-009-annual-reports-and-minutes/

The meeting was called to order on July 26, 2023 at 8:30 am EDT by S-009 Regional Technical Advisory Committee (RTAC) Chair Dr. Soraya Bertioli.

Report from the National Program Staff; Peter Bretting, National Program Leader, USDA-ARS

1. Number of NPGS Germplasm
2. Demand for NPGS Germplasm 2013-2022
3. ARS National Plant Germplasm System Budget reached 52 Million
4. Even though the budget we have seen a down turn due to strong inflation turns in 2021 and 2022
5. Key Challenges to NPGS
6. Peter listed the priorities for Plant Germplasm with Acquisition and Maintenance at the top of the list. Without maintenance all the other priories are moot
7. NPGS Personnel Transitions
8. Training 3 Credit hour Colorado State online course Plant Genetic Resources: Genomes, Gene banks, and Growers was taught Aug.-Sept 2022 and will be taught again next month.  http://pgrcourse.colostate.edu.  Grin-University. https://grin-u.org/
9. Adapting to global warming. NPGS conducted an analysis on global warming affecting NPGS.  Crop Science article published 25 May 2023
10. Budgetary Increases FY22
    1. Pecan PGGR $600,000 College Station Tx
    2. Coffee PGR $250,000 Hilo, HI
    3. Pulse PGR $100,000 Pullman, WA
    4. Pulse PGR$100,000 Urbana, IL

Dr. Peter Bretting stated for genetically modified material, the main focus is on testing and documentation to ensure trueness to type for genetic material.

Report from the USDA, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA); Christian Tobias - National Program Leader, Institute of Food Production & Sustainability

1. Christian gave a presentation on the overview and updates of NIFA
   1. S9 NIFA Reps
      1. Jessica Shade
      2. Christian Tobias
   2. NIFA Update
      1. Leadership
         1. Director Manjist Misra Appointed May 6
         2. Associate Director for Programs Director Dionne Toombs
      2. Grants Modernization Initiative
         1. Replacing end of life systems
      3. USDA Plant Breeding Roadmap FY 2021-2026
         1. Public Cultivars
         2. Whole Breeding Cycle
         3. Improved effectiveness
         4. Incorporating Stakeholder Feedback integration
         5. Prepare for future.
      4. S9- Relevant Competitive Funding 2019-Present
         1. Sorghum has highest percentage of funds, followed by Sweet potato, cucurbit, peanut, switchgrass, pepper, and watermelon
      5. Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI)
         1. Three RFAs Published every two years.
      6. Considerations for AFRI-FAS Fy2023 300 million
      7. Non AFRI programs
         1. AG2PI Agricultural Genomes to Phenomes Initiative
         2. Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI)
      8. Questions
         1. Sustainable ag programs with global warming do you think initiative to identify new crops. A. No specific programs on new crops.
         2. What kind of innovation do you want to see in a proposal? Charles Chen
            1. Cultivar release in the period of the award
            2. Plan for intellectual property and commercialization

Report from the SAAESD & National Plant Germplasm Coordinating Committee; Bob Stougaard – Assistant Dean of Research, UGA, CAES and S-009 Administrative Advisor

Dr. Stougaard was unavailable due to schedule conflict. Melanie Harrison shared that he wanted mentioned that 1) the Southern Association of Experiment Station Directors voted to give the S-009 project an increase to cover costs of the across-the-board salary raise for University of Georgia employees and 2) the S-009 new project proposal has been approved.

Melanie Harrison, Research Leader, USDA-ARS-PGRCU; Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit Annual Update.  All Curators Participated in Presentation.

1. PGRCU Overview
   1. Established 1949
   2. Southern Plant Introduction Station
2. Crops Maintained in Griffin
3. Numbers 104,831 accessions of 1596 Species and 279 genera
4. Sorghum and Millet Collections (Dr. Melanie Harrison)
   1. Sorghum and Millet Regeneration
5. Characterization Lab and Sweet Potato Curation (Dr. MingLi Wang)
   1. Comparison of Plant morphology between sesame control and mutant lines at high generations
   2. Comparison of oleic and linolic acids between sesame control and mutant lines
   3. Comparison of oil content between cultivated peanut and wild species accessions
6. Special Purpose Legumes (Dr. Brad Morris)
   1. Legumes acquired from Al Kretchmer’s (University of Florida)
   2. Hydroponics Advantages – Fewer pests, less space utilized while maximizing seed/corm production, less water needed.
   3. Characterization and Evaluations for Desmodium, Guar, and Sesame
   4. Characterization and Evaluations for Roselle
7. Peanut and Vigna Curation (Dr. Shyam Tallury)
   1. Germplasm Acquisition 29 Accession of 14 Wild Species in 2022 from Dr Charles Simpson
   2. Germplasm Regeneration
      1. Cultivated 559 submitted.
      2. 610 Cultivated Planted

• Wild Species 104 accessions submitted.

1. Wild Species 112 planted

1. Peanut Germplasm Characterization and Evaluations
2. Germplasm Regenerations
3. Vigna Germplasm Characterization and Evaluations

8. Vegetable Curation (Dr. Bob Jarret)
   1. Citrullus Regeneration
      1. 5 Year agreement with HM Clause (500 Accessions to be regenerated)
         1. 60 Accessions received and planning on over 100 accessions later this year
      2. Abelmoschus Regeneration
         1. 3 Year Agreement with HM Clause (750 Accessions to be regenerated
            1. Previous 5 year agreement ended and renewed with 3 year agreement
            2. Possible 1000 accessions agreement with HM Clause
         2. Capsicum Regeneration
            1. Agreement with Curry Chili and Seed (1000 Capsicum accessions to be regenerated)
         3. Cucurbit Regenerations
            1. Agreement with Rijk Zwaan to Regenerate Cucurbita moschata and Lagenaria siceraria accessions (500/250 accessions respectively)
               1. Currently in year 5
            2. Facilities Update
               1. Main Cold Room renovated this year including new cooling system and dehumidification system.
               2. New greenhouse benches were installed in grass greenhouse.
               3. Discussed Tornado damage January 2023. Damage to greenhouses, pumphouse, and fencing at Westbrook was significant. ARS Headquarters and Area Office have provided funding for repairs. The repair project is expected to commence this fall.
            3. Discussed Outreach Program

State Reports

Representatives summarized the state activities, numbers of requests, distributions, utilization, acquisition strategies, and, in some cases, reported publications, cultivar releases, germplasm releases and patents – (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas). Highlights overall fewer requests than usual. State reports can be found in the annual report.

1. Alabama (Charles Chen)
2. Arkansas (not present)
3. Florida (Kevin Kenworthy)
4. Georgia (Soraya Bertioli)
5. Guam (not present)
6. Kentucky (not present)
7. Louisiana (Don Labonte)
8. Mississippi (Brian Baldwin)
9. North Carolina (Carlos Iglesias)
10. Oklahoma (Shuhao Yu)
11. Puerto Rico (Carlos Flores Ortega)
12. South Carolina (Sachin Rustgi)
13. Tennessee (Virginia Sykes)
14. Texas (Gerald Smith)
15. Virgin Islands (not present)
16. Virginia (not present)

Business Meeting

2022 minutes were already approved via email last year, so a vote was needed today.

Current Chair-Elect Carlos Iglesias will move up to Chair for 2024.

Kevin Kenworthy was nominated Chair Elect for 2024 and Shuhao Yu was nominated Secretary for 2024.  Both accepted nominations.

Gerald Smith motioned for nominations to be closed, Soraya Bertioli seconded.  All voted in favor.  Since there was only one nomination per office, nominees were accepted as elected officers.

Meeting location for 2024 will be North Carolina to be hosted by Carlos Iglesias.  He stated that he would send out poll to determine date of the meeting.

Open Discussion

Brian Irish introduced himself as curator from Prosser, WA who is on shadow assignment of NPL Peter Bretting.  Dr. Irish asked a few questions about regeneration agreements with private companies that Bob Jarret had for okra and cucurbit regeneration. Response: Dr. Jarret has established agreements with private companies due to the crops being hard to regenerate. No funding involved. RL encourages these types of agreements as it helps us to regenerate difficult crops that we do not have the resources to regenerate ourselves.

Dr. Harrison asked committee members to help promote the NPGS by citing source of germplasm in peer-reviewed publications and promoting importance of germplasm when meeting with stakeholders.  If you have success stories, please send them to us and we can put on our website and share information during tours.  Next year will be our 75^th Anniversary and will be happy to host a tour for graduate students and other stakeholder groups.

Dr. Bertioli mentioned root-knot nematode resistance from the wild relative Arachis cardenasii is a great example of a success story in peanut.

Brian Irish stated success stories can be shared on GRIN University

Dr. Bertioli Adjourned the meeting at 11:23 am

Accomplishments

The following is a summary of the last five years of work accomplished by the S-009 project to be completed in October, 2023. A total of 104,831 accessions of 1,596 plant species of 269 genera were maintained in the Griffin plant genetic resources collection. This is an increase of 5417 accessions since 2018.  Over 88% of accessions were available for distribution to users and more than 94% were backed up for security at the National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation in Fort Collins, CO. Bulk seed samples for 91,542 accessions were maintained at -18^oC for long-term storage with seed of the remaining accessions stored at 4^oC. During the five years of the project, a total of 199,973 seed and clonal accessions were distributed upon request to scientists and educators worldwide.  A total of 13,122 inventories were pulled for regeneration. A total of 162 wild peanuts, 455 warm-season grasses, and 96 bamboo accessions was preserved in the greenhouse or field plots; and 618 sweet potato accessions were maintained in vitro. Germination testing has been conducted on 92,750 accessions in total.  Of those, 17,528 seed inventories were pulled for viability testing during the project period with 6,444 accessions being newly tested. 

Hydroponic systems including aeroponics, drip irrigation, and nutrient film techniques are useful for rescuing low viable and low seed producing plants. Since some of the legumes, grasses, industrial, and miscellaneous crops contain several accessions ranging in size and have inadequate seed viabilities and quantities, these hydroponic systems have been used to successfully regenerate plants and seeds from these types of accessions.  In addition to the extensive distribution, regeneration, and testing of germplasm made possible by the project over the past five years, numerous characterization and evaluation projects were completed this year as listed below.

Based on screening of the USDA cultivated peanut germplasm collection, 200 accessions were selected to represent extremes of four traits including oil content, 100-seed weight, palmitic acid, and stearic acid (50 accessions per trait).  These accessions were planted in Byron, Georgia in 2022. Seeds from 191 of these accessions were harvested and will be evaluated for these four traits in the lab this year. The same 200 accessions will be planted at Byron again in 2023. After two years’ experiments, the results will be reported and published. The main goal of this effort is to compare the results from screening the peanut seeds maintained in long term storage with freshly grown peanuts from the field.

In collaboration with University of Georgia researchers, 100 peanut wild species accessions were previously genotyped with a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) array. These 100 accessions were planted in the screen house and fresh seeds (2 reps per accession) were collected in 2022. Seed quality including oil and protein content, fatty acid composition, and tocopherol will be measured this year. The newly collected seed quality trait data and SNP array data will be used for Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS).

Other biochemical characterizations of germplasm include measurement of galactomannans in ten guar accessions and fatty acids in 78 sesame lines. Research identifying variation for galactomannan content in guar is important for functional health food and supplement areas. Galactomannan is a natural source of soluble fiber beneficial to human health especially partially hydrolyzed guar gum which has been shown and used for improving digestive problems.

Ongoing collaborative peanut and cowpea evaluation projects include evaluation and identification of peanut smut resistance in the U.S. peanut minicore collection with ARS collaborators from Stillwater, Oklahoma; development of a genetic catalog of USDA peanut germplasm collection in collaboration with researchers from the University of Georgia, Tifton, Georgia and HudsonAlpha Institute, Huntsville, Alabama; biological nitrogen fixation efficiency in cowpea with collaborators from Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Vernon, Texas; and seed mineral concentration in cowpea using GWAS and Genomic prediction tools with collaborators from Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Vernon, Texas.

Ongoing evaluation of vegetable germplasm includes research evaluating the effect of chemical agents used to inactivate plant viruses on seed viability and germination; characterizing the molecular basis for sex determination in a watermelon related dioecious species; investigation of capsaicin as extracted from pepper on induced hypothermia; and crop systematics and assessment of genetic diversity in the germplasm of several vegetable crops.

A project continued with Pride Road, LLC for the identification of seed and calyx production from nine roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) accessions originally selected from 28 tested roselle genotypes. Some of these may produce sufficient mature seed and be useful for jam, chutney, and tea products from calyces which will be developed by Pride Road, LLC. Also, the development of an ornamental roselle cultivar continued. This will be the 4th year of selections from an original mixed sample roselle genotype for ornate purple, red, and bronze foliage and plant size.

Impacts

Germplasm distributed by researchers of this project resulted in numerous publications, plant variety releases, and patents as detailed in the state reports provided by the S-009 State Representatives.

State reports submitted by S-009 State Representatives can be found in the full S-009 Annual Report at https://www.ars.usda.gov/southeast-area/griffin-ga/pgrcu/docs/s-009-annual-reports-and-minutes/