From: "Rothschild, Max F [AN S]" <mfrothsc@iastate.edu>
To: angenmap@animalgenome.org
Subject: US Pig Genome Newsletter #94
Date: Thu, 25 Dec 2008 20:31:36 -0600

                  P I G     G E N O M E     U P D A T E
     __________________________________________________________________
     A Bimonthly Newsletter of the U.S. Pig Genome Coordination Program

                  **************  No. 94  **************
                  *                                    *
                  *    <angenmap@animalgenome.org>     *
                  *           January 1, 2009          *
                  **************************************
===========================================================================
  1. National Swine Improvement Federation Meetings were held in Nashville 
  2. Sequencing Project Progress is on target to complete in 2009
  3. Illumina and the International Porcine SNP Chip Consortium are pleased 
     to announce that the porcine 50K+ SNP panel is available
  4. PAG XVII, January 10-14, 2009, is nearly here
  5. USDA Grant update
  6. Best wishes and Thanks
  7. Upcoming meetings ( 8 items )
===========================================================================
Happy Holidays and New Year to you, your families and colleagues!!

         ***            ***            ***            ***

National Swine Improvement Federation Meetings were held in Nashville 
TN on December 5-6.  About 80 people attended the recent meetings which 
focussed on developments on many topics for swine genetic improvement 
including genetic markers, SNP technology and advances for the future.  
It is expected that NSIF paper will be posted at their web site at 
http://www.nsif.com/ in the near future. 

           o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o

Sequencing Project Progress is on target to complete in 2009.  A total 
of 95% of the physical map has been selected in 15,882 BAC clones for 
sequencing.  14,233 of these clones have sequence available, contributing 
2,438Mb, which is approximately 85% of the map.  We are aiming to select 
a further 1,100 clones over the next 4-5 months, which will bring the 
total number of clones for the project to 17,000 (see graph
http://www.animalgenome.org/pigs/genomesequence/progres3.jpg for more
detais).  In addition, we will be spending some time closing the 
remaining map gaps - the entire genome is in 166 map contigs.  We will 
make use of assembly software to discover where remaining gaps can be 
closed, both by the addition of new clones into the map and by the manual 
manipulation of existing clone sequence.  For further details, please go 
to www.sanger.ac.uk/Projects/S_scrofa/ or mail pig-help@sanger.ac.uk.  
(kindly provided Lucy Mathews and Richard Clark, Sanger).

           o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o

Illumina and the International Porcine SNP Chip Consortium are pleased 
to announce that the porcine 60K SNP panel is available and being 
shipped.  If you did not place an order please do not hesitate to 
contact Illumina for further information or questions at 
http://www.illumina.com/contactMe.ilmn?CS=1. 

           o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o

PAG XVII, January 10-14, 2009, is nearly here.  The program is now 
posted on the web.  Some reorganization of the species workshops on 
Saturday and Sunday has taken place to avoid overlap and increase 
attendance to the NRSP8 meeting which is all Sunday afternoon.  The 
main PAG meeting runs Sunday night through Wednesday. See 
http://www.intl-pag.org/ for more information and to register.  Some 
funds to assist travelers for the swine workshop may be available on 
request.

           o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o

USDA Grant update.  The 2008 Farm Bill authorized the creation of the 
Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), which replaces the 
National Research Initiative (NRI). AFRI offers research, education, 
extension project opportunities that focus on six key areas of 
importance to agriculture, nutrition, food safety, environment, and 
rural communities.  CSREES released the AFRI program announcement on 
the agency's Web site 
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/funding/afri/pdfs/program_announcement.pdf 
and on Grants.gov.  The program announcement provides an overview of 
the legislation that created the AFRI program and describes programs 
being offered in Fiscal Year 2009. The program descriptions contain the 
program priorities, deadline dates, budget limitations, and contact 
information. The program announcement does not contain all information 
needed to submit an application. That information will be contained in 
the AFRI Request for Applications (RFA).  The AFRI RFA is anticipated 
in January 2009. Important information regarding the Animal Genome, 
Genetics, and Breeding Program:  The program name for the Animal Genome 
program has been changed to "Animal Genome, Genetics, and Breeding" 
Letters of Intent are required for research priorities 1 through 4 and 
the letter of intent deadline is March 5, 2009.  The proposal deadline 
for research priorities 1 through 4 is May 14, 2009.  Potential 
applicants are advised to review the entire AFRI program announcement 
closely to ensure that they understand the full range of programs and 
grant types available (kindly provided by D. Hamernik and P Burfening)

           o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o

Best wishes and Thanks.  As many may not know Dr. Deb Hamernik is 
leaving CSREES and will be the Associate Dean for Research and 
Associate Director of the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station at 
the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.  We thank her for all her great 
help and wish her well in the future.

           o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o    o

Upcoming meetings (see: 
 http://www.animalgenome.org/pigs/community/meetings.html) 
 
 Ninth International Long-Oligonucleotide Microarray Workshop, Jan. 4-9, 
 2009. The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. Further details at 
 http://ag.arizona.edu/microarray/workshopJan2009.html
 
 Plant & Animal Genome Conference, PAG XVII, Jan. 10-14, 2009, Town & 
 Country Hotel, San Diego, CA. More info. will be available at 
 http://www.intl-pag.org/ .
 
 Advances in Genome Biology & Technology Conference, Feb. 4-7, 2009. 
 Marco Island, FL. Information at www.agbt.org
 
 Genomic Impact of Eukaryotic Transposable Elements, Feb. 6-10, 2009.  
 Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, CA. Information at 
 http://www.girinst.org/conference/Asilomar-2009/index.html
 
 Gordon Conference on Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Feb. 22-26, 
 2009.
 Hotel Galvez, Galveston Island, TX. Register at 
 https://www.grc.org/application.aspx?id=3D8785
 
 Midwest ASAS, ADSA regional meetings. March 16-19 in Des Moines IA. 
 Details at http://adsa.asas.org/midwest/2009/
 
 Statistical Genetics of Livestock for the Post-Genomic Era, May 4-6, 
 2009.  University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. Additional information to 
 be sent out soon.
 
           <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>   <>

Items for Pig Genome Update 95 can be sent to me by no later than February 15
please.

A special thanks to friends and colleagues for your help and support. Please 
take some time off to enjoy the holidays!! 

                    Max Rothschild
                    U.S. Pig Genome Coordinator
                    2255 Kildee Hall, Department of Animal Science
                    Iowa State University
                    Ames, Iowa 50011
                    Phone: 515-294-6202, Fax: 515-294-2401
                    mfrothsc@iastate.edu
	 	            http://www.animalgenome.org/pigs/ 

cc: Muquarrab Qureshi, CSREES and Caird Rexroad II, ARS

===========================================================================
                  U.S. PIG GENOME COORDINATION PROJECT
+-----------------------------------+
| Paid for by funds from the NRSP-8 | Web: http://www.animalgenome.org/pig
| USDA/CSREES sponsored Pig Genome  | Mail: angenmap@animalgenome.org
| Coordination Program              |
+-----------------------------------+--------------------------------------