Newsletter Aug 02

These newsletters are edited and distributed at irregular intervals by Dag Lindgren. Email me if you want to be added or removed from the mailing list or your email-address changed. If links does not function, try to use the variant from the web instead!

An URL address to this Newsletter is:
http://daglindgren.upsc.se/Newsletters/Newsletter02to03/Newsletter_Aug02.htm
(the link has to be copied and pasted, note that it is broken on some emails)

Mini-course in Quantitative Genetics and Breeding Theory Sept 16-18.

This will probably be the last course of this type I teach at Umeå. I plan to deliver a mini-course in Quantitative Genetics and breeding theory in Umeå 16-18 September. I regard it as suitable to scientists (who work with breeding related issues), tree breeders, research students in forest genetics; or research students in adjacent fields with an interest for or interface with forest tree breeding. Some have participated in my similar mini-courses before, and when participation may be considered less urgent.

It will be 3 two hours lectures. I have booked the lecture room Sälgen A (floor 5, "Skogis", Umeå) and an electronic projector for September 16, 17 and 18 from 9.15-11.00. Course information is available at

http://daglindgren.upsc.se/Courses/PostGrad/BreedSep02.htm

If nothing else announced on that website, the course will take place as written here.

If someone outside Umeå wants to attend, please contact me latest at August 24 and say if there are timing problems. I may reconsider the timing (concentrate it to two days, change the time of the first lecture, to make it possible to travel to Umeå in the morning 16 or something like that, but as I do not foresee this I do not plan for it now).

 

The performance will be presented mainly by my even if I may ask for assistance from e.g. Darius. The reason to schedule the course now is that I now have five potential attendants (visiting scientists) in the corridor, but I plan to reduce these visitor activities in the future, and never foresee this will happen again. This will be the last time I deliver a similar course at Umeå. This is thus the last chance for Umeå residents (reservation; the proposed research school may change that, I will also probably make similar teaching on other places).

 

It is basically the same stuff I presented earlier with some up dates.

 

Among other things I will format my OHs to an electronic projector. 

Part of the content (so you can see what type of stuff is presented) is at

http://daglindgren.upsc.se/Breed_Home_Page/Tutorials/Quant_Gen/Kurs01A_for_site.htm

 

 

GMO trees in the center of attention!

Finland has (in contrast to Sweden which does not harbor any field experiment with GMO forest trees) two field experiments with GMO trees (birches). Both were visited by demonstrators the last month, who marked the experiments with warning signs. The association "Medborgarnas biosäkerhetsförening" arranged the activity.

 

IPRs in plant varieties

The July 2002 article in the FAO Legal Papers Online series is entitled

"Intellectual property rights in plant varieties: An overview with options

for national governments". Although not directly related to agricultural

biotechnology, this article by Laurence R. Helfer is worth noting because of

the indirect consequences of the topic on plant biotechnology. FAO Legal

Papers Online is a series of articles and reports on legal issues of

contemporary interest in the areas of food policy, agriculture, rural

development, biodiversity, environment and natural resource management. See
http://www.fao.org/Legal/Prs-OL/lpo31.pdf

 

Conference on Quantitative Genetics and Genomics

The Gordon Conference on Quantitative Genetics and Genomics will be held in Ventura, California (just up the coast from LA) on Feb 9-14, 2003.  For those that have not attended in the past, the conference is a wonderful mix of quantitative geneticists ranging from plant and animal breeders to human geneticists to evolutionary biologists.  Throw in the informal setting of the Gordon conference -- a whale watching trip one afternoon, wine tasting the next --- and you have a great way to interact with a very wide range of researchers working on issues of the analysis of complex genetic traits. Maybe I will be where. Details and a current working list of speakers can be found at

http://nitro.biosci.arizona.edu/gordon2003.html

 

Vad fanns värt att veta om genetik för nästan ett sekel sedan?

Jag bläddrade i Nordisk familjebok, konversationslexikon från 1908.

Jag hittade ingenting om genetik.

Men några uppslagsord hittade jag, som föreföll relevanta;...

Gen. Förkortning för lat. genitivus och genus.

Gene ..fr. genom tortyr framtvungen bekännelse....

Genetisk   ... den vetenskapliga metod, som vid behandlingen av ett visst ämne söker att giva en framställning av dettas uppkomst och utveckling...

 

Spruce breeding simulator

A study has recently been published, and I would like to flag for it for two reasons. First its numerical values should have relevance for the Swedish Norway spruce breeding and it ought to be possible to make conclusions on strategic and tactic of breeding, which ought to be relevant for parts of the Swedish breeding program. We know that there are variable opinions and differences in practical experiences and also variations in technical and biological details on values of the input and further there are concept ional differences how to interpret the input. Own values can easily be inserted in the workbook (see below) for those who believe that our suggested values are not the most relevant for how breeding is actually planned now. The study covers a range of possible input and ought to support discussions.  The other reason is that it will soon be a Nordic meeting in Scotland focusing on whom you are kidding with clonal forestry. The study strongly supports clonal testing (rather than progeny testing) as a component of a breeding strategy, and thus contributes significantly to this kidding business, which will be discussed in Scotland. Darius and I will actually bring it for discussion in southern China at the same time. Danusevicius D & Lindgren D 2002. Efficiency of Selection Based on Phenotype, Clone and Progeny Testing in Long-term Breeding. Silvae Genetica 51:19-26. At "http://daglindgren.upsc.se/Papers/Articles2002-2003/BreedingCyclerTesting.htm" Made use of the program "breeding cycler". Breeding cycler is an Excel based simulator and is available on my web site at "http://daglindgren.upsc.se/Breed_Home_Page/Breeding_Cycler/", if someone wants to try own values or develop it for a broader application.

 

Funding survey

A funding survey focusing on of forest genetics based on enquiries has been presented by Dr Fenning. The report is available on

http://daglindgren.upsc.se/fenning/FFS.doc

Dr Fenning has asked me to forward his comments as follows;

"Although the number of respondents was unfortunately small, it does seem apparent that the overall level of funding for forestry R&D (for the regions from which replies were received at least) is at best flat relative to scientific inflation, and may even be actually declining in absolute terms.

 

Given the clear importance of forests to us all, and the urgent need to establish viable forest enterprises for achieving global sustainability, it seems remarkable that governments and funding agencies in the developed regions are apparently unable or unwilling to maintain the funding necessary for this work to succeed, let alone to increase it.  The need for better links between the results likely to derive from the emphasis on 'pure' research and applied field work, seems especially acute.

 

Because of it's small size, this funding survey is probably a weak instrument to use in calling for a higher priority to be given to forestry R&D needs, but I call on those already involved in this work to aggressively lobby their governments and funding agencies for more funding.  Don't take no for an answer!  In the event of the expected provarication, I suggest one asks them, how their respective government can expect to meet its commitments for reducing CO2 build-up in the atmosphere and global sustainability, if it is not doing

enough to encourage the development of forestry."

 

One of the reactions on the June02 letter was that Matti focused my attention on a site, which contains lots of generally valuable links:

http://keithstanger.com

 

Symposium (NCSU) information at
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/nreos/forest/feop/ieg40.html

 

A Finnish thesis was presented some months ago:

Nikkanen, Teijo. 2002.  Functioning of a Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) seed orchard (väitöskirja). Seloste: Kuusen siemenviljelyksen toimivuus.     Metsäntutkimuslaitoksen tiedonantoja 850 - Finnish Forest Research Institute,   Research Papers 850.- 58 p. + 85 p. (studies I-VI).       [ISBN 951-40-1830-3]

 

Course for undergraduates

I will arrange and teach a course for undergraduates at Umeå about Forest Tree Breeding and seed supply (5 Swedish points) October 30 - November 29. The course will be given. What I know today it will get 4 Swedish and 5 foreign participants.

RGS is scheduled to meet September 20 at Uppsala and föreningen Skogsträdsförädling November 18.

 

Strengthening Forest Genetics at SLU

In the June Newsletter I informed that it exists a written suggestion strengthening genetics ("research school"), which was discussed at a meeting with the board of the faculty in June (although no documented conclusions were made) and a meeting with föreningen in May. I did not mean to imply that anything I consider positive will come out from it, I have now seen too many papers and heard too much talk before to trust in that. But I find it encouraging that someone is writing this type of documents, that would probably not be the case if the interest for the issue was zero.

What should I do with the rest of my life?
Probably I edit and author a book about forest tree breeding focusing on related breeding theory. This is a five years project and would keep me busy till I retire. Are there any suggestions or comments on this? If it sounds interesting, you are welcome to contact me.

IPRs in plant varieties

The July 2002 article in the FAO Legal Papers Online series is entitled "Intellectual property rights in plant varieties: An overview with options for national governments". Although not directly related to agricultural biotechnology, this article by Laurence R. Helfer is worth noting because of the indirect consequences of the topic on plant biotechnology. FAO Legal

Papers Online is a series of articles and reports on legal issues of contemporary interest in the areas of food policy, agriculture, rural development, biodiversity, environment and natural resource management. See http://www.fao.org/Legal/Prs-OL/lpo31.pdf

Newsletter technical comments

The failure to confirm in the April newsletter: The automatic confirmation feature. Unfortunately there is no common standard as to how this feature should be implemented. Different e-mail clients can seldom interpret each other's requests for a confirmation. If they receive such a request, they do nothing. Webmasters can prevent the function and an individual user can also forbid it.

For how long will these newsletters remain? I intend to go on a sabbatical to US in the end of this year, and when I intend to terminate this service. Three subscribers responded to this "threat" by asking me to continue, I have in other connections got strong positive statements from around 5 subscribers. Something like 8 enthusiasts is too few. I can see that around one third of “newcomers”, who could register if they were recommended or it was seen as a valuable service. E.g. of the doctorands at forest genetics Uppsala, which has came the last five years has no one asked for the service. Thus I conclude that the demand for a continued service is too meagre. One function the letters serves is information to my immediate surrounding. But this it is easier to target that need separately and it will be more complete in that way. The newsletter also serves the function to express my own thoughts on things, and I may feel a need to do that in the autumn 2003, so I will not exclude that I make a final number then.