From salmongroup-request@animalgenome.orgMon Feb 28 13:34:40 2005 Message-ID: <4616A21343E44A4FA91D103539C37C1578989D@defiant.afrs.ars.usda.gov> From: "Rexroad, Caird" Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 14:34:35 -0500 Subject: Salmonid Genome List Serve, White Papers, and Priorities To: Multiple Recipients of Dear Salmonid Genome Researcher: There are two items I would like to draw your attention towards. Item 1) The Salmonid Genome List Serve has been moved to Iowa State University and can be accessed at: http://www.genome.iastate.edu/aquaculture/community/communicate.html We have taken precautions to limit spam including: a. Only members can post. b. Membership requires approval from the site administrator. Those who wish to post but not be added to the membership can contact the site administrator or other contacts listed on the website (species coordinator, etc...). Postings must be in plain text format, no attachments are accepted. If you have received this email, you are currently signed up as a member. To add/remove please send an email to the Service address including your name, affiliation, position, and email address. Posting address: salmongroup@animalgenome.org Service address: salmongroup-request@animalgenome.org Item 2) As you may know two white papers, one from the leadership of NRSP8 and one from the leadership of the Aquaculture section of NRSP8, were submitted to the USDA/CSREES in support of preserving the NRI Tools and Reagent Funding Program. A response from Dr. Anna Palmisano, CSREES Deputy Administrator of Competitive Programs is included below. As a result, Dr. Liu, Aquaculture Coordinator, has asked each aquaculture species to prioritize their top three needs for genome tools and reagents. I am collecting input for salmonid species, which will be combined with other aquaculture species prior to submission to USDA. I am asking you to contact me within the next week directly or via the List Serve with a list of priorities as you see them. To begin this discussion, I would think that the following (in no particular order) are examples of what could be included in a list of priorities for salmonids: Chromosome specific paints for cytogenetic mapping A BAC map for rainbow trout Targeted microarray resources Comparative maps BAC library for Artic char Bioinformatic resources SNP maps I look forward to hearing from you all, Caird Letter from Dr. Palmisano to Dr. Jerry Dodgson, who took the lead on submitting the NRSP8 White Paper: Dear Jerry, Please share this e-mail with the NRSP-8 Species Coordinators and general membership. Many thanks for your detailed response to our request for input regarding the future of the NRI 43.1 Animal Genome Reagent and Tool Development competitive grants program. The program will continue to be offered (contingent upon the availability of funding). You will note, however, that the program description will be redesigned and refocused beginning with the FY 2006 NRI Request for Applications (RFA). In your e-mail, you provided us with a fairly extensive list of suggested topics for discovery research and technology development to be supported by the NRI Animal Genome Reagent and Tool Development competitive grants program. However, we would like to continue to work with the NRSP-8 Species Coordinators to refine the list of topics that you provided so that a focused set of priorities for this program could be developed for future RFAs. NRI funding is limited, so it is extremely important that NRI programs focus on achieving specific long- and short-term goals to deliver reagents and tools that will have the highest impact on the research community and our agency's mission. We realize that our understanding of the various animal genomes is at a different level for each species. During the next six months, we would like to encourage each NRSP-8 Species Coordinator to work with the members of the species subcommittee to identify the top three priorities for genome reagents and tools for that species. By setting a limited number of specific priorities for each species, we feel that we can most efficiently use the time that is spent by those investigators that write and review proposals. Of equal importance, our limited dollars will be spent on reagents and tools that will be of most value to advancing the understanding of the genomes of agriculturally important animals and aquatic species. We hope that the NRSP-8 Species Coordinators will accept this opportunity and provide the NRI with a list of their top three priorities for each of the species represented in NRSP-8. We would like your top three priorities for each species by the end of August 2005. While it is too late to include this information in the FY 2006 NRI RFA, we will be happy to include your recommendations during our FY 2007 NRI RFA planning process. Feel free to contact us if we can help you with this important process of setting priorities for this program. Thanks again for your input regarding the NRI Animal Genome Reagent and Tool Development competitive grants program. We look forward to future interactions with the NRSP-8 community to set specific priorities for this program. Sincerely, Anna Palmisano Deputy Administrator, Competitive Programs Caird Rexroad Molecular Biologist USDA/ARS National Center for Cool and Cold Water Aquaculture 304-724-8340x2129 http://ncccwa.ars.usda.gov/