Rice Genetics IV - IRRI books - International Rice Research Institute

Functional genomics workshopThe objective of this workshop was to develop details of collaboration on three activities:(1) developing an information node, (2) promoting the sharing of geneticstocks, and (3) developing microarray resources.Mike Gale indicated the need for more international collaboration in rice functionalgenomics because of the uniqueness of rice as a food crop and as a modelsystem. Furthermore, because of the scale and costs of many genomics technologiesand the emerging need for phenotyping, the research community has many incentivesto share resources and combine expertise.Web site information nodeHei Leung reported on the creation of a Web site (http://www.cgiar.org/irri/genomics/)to facilitate communication and called for active participation. Research groupswith interest in participating in the working group were requested to post a summaryof their research interest on the Web site and provide links to their own Web sites.Active information flow and database linkages will improve the usefulness of thesite.Genetic stocksThe representatives of research laboratories from Asia, Australia, Europe, and theUnited States reported on the development of mutant stocks for functional genomicsresearch. With the growing wealth of genetic stocks (mutant lines, recombinant inbredlines, introgression lines, dihaploids, etc.), the group believed that it would beuseful to have a general inventory of these resources posted on the Web site.The group also identified several factors that potentially limit the sharing anddistribution of genetic materials, particularly for transgenic insertion mutants. Severalresearch group representatives (Gynheung An of Pohang University of Scienceand Technology, Korea; Andy Pereira of Plant Research International, The Netherlands;and Andrzej Kilian of CAMBIA, Australia) pointed out obstacles to the distributionof the insertion mutants: limited seed, distribution costs, special conditionsneeded to propagate transgenic materials, and regulatory and quarantine requirementsfor the movement of rice seeds between countries. These concerns represent a significantburden on the scientists to share genetic stocks on a large scale.Hei Leung proposed two steps to initiate the process of sharing. First, collaboratinglaboratories can consider exchanging a small amount of seed with known characteristics.For example, insertion lines with known flanking sequences at the insertionsites can be shared among collaborators to conduct selective phenotyping. Second,485