National Plant Germplasm Coordinating Committee 

Geneva, NY 

June 1, 2017

 

Attendees:

Eric Young, SAAESD

Ann Marie Thro, USDA/NIFA (by phone)

Clarence Watson, University of Arkansas

Tim Cupka, ASTA - AgReliant Genetics

Margaret Smith, PBCC - Cornell University

Jim Moyer, Washington State University

Jan Nyrop, Cornell University

Rachel Melnick, USDA/NIFA

Ed Kaleikau, USDA/NIFA

Peter Bretting, USDA/ARS, Office of National Programs, Beltsville

Larry Chandler, USDA-ARS, Plains Area, Ft. Collins, CO

Gan-Yuan Zhong, USDA-ARS, Geneva, NY

 

1.       ARS/NPGS Update - Peter Bretting (powerpoint)

·         NPGS accessions ~ 575,000, increasing 1% a year (2016)

·         Distribution ~ 250,000, stable (2016)

o   Approximately 30% of collection overall is distributed each year

·         Budget stable at $44 Million in FY'17, FY'18 it's expected to decrease

·         Flat budget is a challenge considering increasing collection size, curator retirements, managing accessions with GE traits and adventitious presence, and applying cryopreservation techniques to extend seed life, and conserving clonally-propagated germplasm

·         Hired a new taxonomist for GRIN Taxonomy at NGRL, Beltsville, to step in when current taxonomist retires next year

·         2016 Retrospective Review of ARS National Program 301, which covers all of ARS's germplasm, genomics, and breeding efforts.

o   NP 301 External Review Panel Report was delivered a year ago and emphasized how important the NPGS is

o   Among the recommendations to ARS were:

§  Define more clearly the goals, products, final output, and criteria for quality

§  Increase effort in crop improvement in nutritional value based on consumer and industry needs

·         There's a need for training/education in germplasm curation to train the next generation of curators

o   Possibly a distance education course offered collaboratively by land-grant university staff in conjunction with by one of the NPGS Plant Intro Stations

 

2.       PGOC & RPIS Update - Gan-Yuan Zhong (powerpoint)

·         2017 PGOC meeting has been postponed until 2018 for budget reasons

·         Critical new issue is distribution of germplasm to fill requests from non-researchers and general public, many of these cases are difficult to handle

·         How is impact of distributed accessions determined?  Difficult to get specific impact from breeders due to long term nature of crop improvement

o   ARS has approximately a dozen specific examples of impact from NPGS accessions on variety improvement and the profitability and value of specific US crops

 

3.       NIFA Update - Rachel Melnick and Ed Kaleikau (powerpoint)

·         Received some budget increases in 2017, but those might go away in 2018 budget

·         In 2016 offered Plant Breeding for Ag Production as Foundational Program in AFRI

·         In 2016 Food Security offered phenomics and Breeding

·         In 2017 offering

o   Water for Food Production Challenge Area

o   Social Implications of Emerging Technologies Foundational Program

o   Food and Ag Cyber informatics and Tools Initiatives, Conference grants in 2017 and Foundational and Challenge grants in 2018

·         Plant breeding priority has increased over past few years and funding in that area has increased

 

4.       Liaison Comments

·         AOSCA - Chet Boruff (written report only)

·         ASTA - Tim Cupka

o   Several years of poor commodity prices have led to mergers and a lot of "Chaos"

§  Syngenta and ChemChina

§  Monsanto and Bayer

§  Dow and DuPont

o   Layoffs prior to mergers, especially from Dow, have resulted in larger than normal number of breeders looking for jobs

·         PBCC - Margaret Smith

o   Objectives

§  Collect and disseminate information on US public plant breeding

·         Survey being done now

§  Promote plant genetic resources preservation and utilization

·         Publication submitted to Crop Science on value of NPGS

§  Identify BMP for public sector IP protection

·         Proceedings of 2016 workshop will be released soon

§  Promote public private partnerships to help educate future breeders

§  Communication with federal agencies about issues related to breeding

 

5.       National Genetics Resource Advisory Council - Peter Bretting (powerpoint)

·         Council has completed responding to the AC21 report and now is focused more broadly on the following topics

o   Crop genetic resources

o   Animal genetic resources

o   Aquatic genetic resources

o   Tribal genetic resource issues and natural resources

·         New Council members reflect the more diverse portfolio for the Council

·         Council has appointed a Crop Vulnerability Subcommittee

·         Also appointed an Animal Genetics Subcommittee to access needs of animal and aquatic genetic resources

·         Next meeting in July '17 in Kansas City

 

6.       International Treaty - Peter Bretting (powerpoint)

·         Ratified by the Senate on September 29, 2016 and US officially became a party to the treaty on March 13, 2017

·         NPGS will have the primary responsibility for implementing the treaty, it doesn't add any obligations to public or private breeders

 

7.       NRSP 10 - Jim Moyer (powerpoint  and handout)

·         Overall objective is to have genetic information on specialty crops in a common database that also communicates with other databases

·         Four of five databases converted to Tripal

·         Developing tablet application

·         Developing interface with commonly used databases

·         Developing curation tools

·         Developing online version of GENSAS

·         Conducting numerous webinars and workshops

 

8.       Publication - Margaret Smith

·         Timely and important information

·         It would be very helpful to produce a "one-pager" of the critical points that can be used with decision-makers to promote NPGS

·         This publication in Crop Science will lend credibility to the issue

 

9.       2018 Meeting

·         Peter will check with NRSP-6 coordinator, John Bamburg, about meeting in Sturgeon Bay at their potato genebank facility

·         Timing for the NPGCC meeting should avoid conflicts with ARS Administrative Council, ASTA, and AOSCA meetings