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USDA/ARS/MWA - Soybean/Maize Germplasm, Pathology & Genetics Research Unit & University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign - Department of Crop Sciences |
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S-123 Turner Hall 1102 South Goodwin Avenue Urbana, IL 61801-4730 |
(217) 333-6631 [phone]
(217) 333-6064 [fax] maize@uiuc.edu [e-mail] http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/maize |
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3,800 seed samples have been supplied in response to 288 requests for 2007. A total of 86 requests were received from 22 foreign countries. Popular stock requests include the IBM RIL mapping populations, Hi-II lines, ig1 lines, Stock 6 haploid-inducing lines, male sterile cytoplasms, transposable element lines, Maize Inflorescence Project EMS lines, and Chromatin stocks.
Approximately 6.2 acres of nursery were grown this summer at the Crop Sciences Research & Education Center located at the University of Illinois. Favorable weather in the early spring allowed the timely planting of our first crossing nursery. Like last year, redwing blackbirds started feeding on our second crossing nursery. As soon as we noticed this, we irrigated our second field, which seemed to reduce feeding, probably due to it making the kernels more difficult to pull out of the damp compacted soil. Subsequent rainfall seemed to solve the problem and only a few rows were lost. Warm spring weather resulted in rapid germination and plant growth, and we had an earlier than normal pollination season. However, mild drought conditions necessitated supplemental irrigation prior to pollination. Moderate temperatures and low plant stress during and following pollination resulted in excellent yields.
Special plantings were made of several categories of stocks:
1. Plantings were made of donated stocks from the collections of Joe Colasanti (id1-m1), Jerry Kermicle (various r1 alleles), Major Goodman (rare isozyme lines), Frank Hochholdinger (rtcs1), Robert Lambert (orange endosperm1), Rob Martienssen (MTM material), Damon Lisch (Mu-killer), Gerry Neuffer (recent EMS-induced mutants), the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station (Lfy1), Ron Phillips (mutants in various inbred backgrounds), Pat Schnable (rth1), Margaret Smith (male sterile cytoplasm lines), and others. We expect to receive additional accessions of stocks from maize geneticists within the upcoming year.
2. We conducted allelism tests of several categories of mutants with similar phenotype or chromosome location. We identified additional alleles of albescent1, Factor Cuna (Fcu), waxy1, shrunken2, viviparous5, and pale yellow9. In 2008, we plan to test additional members of the viviparous, spotted leaf, and pale endosperm classes of mutants. In this manner, we hope to incorporate more stocks from our vast collection of unplaced uncharacterized mutants into the main collection.
3. Occasionally, requestors bring to our attention stocks that do not carry the traits they are purported to carry. We devote field space each year to analyzing these stocks, fixing or enhancing those we can, and soliciting replacements from researchers for those we can't. In those rare instances in which a particular variation or combination of variations cannot be recovered, we modify our catalog to reflect this.
4. We further characterized the Fcu system of r1 aleurone color enhancers. We are working on linkage stocks to refine the map position of Fcu alleles using visible kernel and seedling markers on Chromosome 2, and we continued a series of crosses to transposon tag Fcu using one of Tom Brutnell's transposed Ac lines. We are collecting and characterizing additional alleles of Fcu and other r1 aleurone color enhancers and inhibitors.
5. In the 'Phenotype Only' collection, we have made available an additional 48 new stocks since November 2006. Most of these are from the Primary Neuffer Collection sent to us by Gerry Neuffer in 1996 and 1997. This brings us down to 119 stocks we are still trying to recover from the original sources. Of the 234 stocks in this collection we had been unable to recover from Dr. Neuffer's sources, we received new sources for 20 of them in 2007 from the collection of Ed Coe.
6. Two acres were devoted to the propagation of the large collection of cytological variants, including A A translocation stocks and inversions. Additional translocations received from W. R. Findley and Don Robertson marked with wx1, y1 su1 and o2 were added to our collection. For those marked with wx1 we conducted linkage tests to confirm the chromosome arms involved. We were also able to recover several old translocations thought to be lost. These were recovered from E.G. Anderson sources and listed in MaizeGDB in 2007.
7. Stocks produced from the NSF project "Regulation of Maize Inflorescence Architecture" (see: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/servlet/showaward?award=0110189) were grown this summer. Approximately 2300 kernels of M1 families that were produced in 2006 were grown to produce M2 lines and for the observation of dominant mutations. From these plants, 800 M2 generation ears were produced and 5 adult plant dominant mutations were observed and pollinated. These 800 families will be planted for observation of recessive plant phenotypes in 2008.
We continue to grow a winter nursery of 0.5 acres at the Illinois Crop Improvement Association's facilities in Juana Dìaz, Puerto Rico. We had a reduced winter crop last year due to spray damage, but received an adequate increase of most lines. This situation was brought to the field manager's attention, and all indications are that we will have a good crop this year. We plan to continue growing our winter nurseries at this location.
We have received 265 additional EMS lines from various inbred backgrounds produced by Dr. Gerry Neuffer (Regulation of Inflorescence Architecture in Maize project). There are sufficient seed for all of these for distribution. We have also received an additional seven lines from the Functional Genomics of Maize Chromatin project (see: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/servlet/showaward?award=0421619) from Karen McGinnis. The 510 'Phenotype Only' Stocks from the UniforMu project received from Don McCarty/Mark Settles in 2004 and 2005 have been assigned stock numbers and permanent drawer locations. In addition, there are 27 new Sequence Indexed stocks from Mark Settles available, and 2,072 Maize TILLING stocks produced by Cliff Weil and Rita Monde.
The 265 lines from Gerry Neuffer's EMS material were screened for ear and kernel mutations in the lab, but were not planted in observation fields on the University of Illinois Crop Science Research facility. These lines in addition to the 800 produced in Illinois in 2007 will be planted for phenotypic observation in 2008.
Our IT specialist has continued to make updates and improvements to our curation tools, which are used to maintain data for our collection. These tools input our public stock data directly into MaizeGDB to give maize scientists access to up-to-date information about our collection. They are also used for our internal database (e. g. inventory, pedigrees, requests). A new tool for pedigree data entry is in the final stage of development and should greatly cut down the amount of time required to enter pedigree data. Work towards easier and faster generation of field notes and harvest tags is ongoing. Our web site has also been updated (http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/maize).
Additional samples of stocks will be sent this winter to National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Fort Collins, Colorado for back up. These represent stocks that had not been previously backed up. Our new inventory system has made selecting ears to be sent and producing a packing list to accompany them a much more efficient procedure.
The new greenhouse space in Urbana has been completed and is being used for our second winter crop. The space has proven to be excellent for growing material that doesn't do well under our field conditions. Our new seed storage space (which doubles our capacity) was completed in March 2007. We presently have 476 seed storage drawers of the 1,584 the room will eventually hold (pending funding).
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Marty Sachs |
Philip Stinard |
Janet Day Jackson |
Shane Zimmerman |
Josh Tolbert |