The focus of this meeting is on the grass family of flowering plants.
However, genome research on plants from other plant families, and the
general state of genome research in animals and microbes, will be
presented.
Although scientists rarely agree on anything, occasionally an issue
arises that is readily understood and a general plan-of-action is agreed
upon by virtually all experts. Such a consensus was recently reached by a
group of agricultural geneticists at a Banbury meeting held at the Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory in late 1994. About 50 plant scientists,
including the foremost experts from several countries involved in
agricultural genetic research, formed the International Grasses Genome
Initiative (IGGI). Loosely led by co-chairs, Dr. Mike Gale from the John
Innes Institute, UK, and Professor Jeff Bennetzen, Purdue University, USA,
this group of biologists came to a unanimous recommendation which might be
paraphrased as follows:
Assuming that the world population doubles by about 2100, the
agricultural environment will necessarily decay as a consequence. In
order to protect our food supply, it will probably be necessary to
genetically redesign our major crops to yield under the prevailing
environmental conditions, however salty, dry, wet, or toxic. The grass
family provides us with the vast majority of our food, and many other
products as well. Further, many exotic grass species possess
attributes that hold considerable promise if transferred to crops. In
order to redesign crops, grasses -- and their genes and genomes -- must be
better understood at every level. Research aimed at understanding grass
genomes and how they differ, a Grasses Genome Project, is the first and
urgent need.
More information about this meeting, including a registration form and a
tentative agenda, can be found at the website http://mollie.berkeley.edu,
or you can request this information from melissaq@uclink2.berkeley.edu.