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Syngenta
Foundation grant to Cornell University
Sorghum and pearl millet are the two staples in the diets
of Africa's Sahel.
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With a recently awarded grant from The Syngenta
Foundation, Cornell University's Institute for Genomic Diversity will be
compiling, developing and improving plant scientist access to molecular
breeding support tools for sorghum and pearl millet, two staples in the diets
of Africa's Sahel. Access to the information will be unrestricted, and
available at no charge to all interested parties. Initial access is
expected mid year 2006.
While many resources and tools are available worldwide for
scientists working on sorghum and pearl millet, the resources are scattered,
not comprehensive, and not geared for practical use by scientists outside
specific projects. Easy and ready access by plant breeders to the full
compendium of research information is critical to developing
improved varieties of these crops more quickly and efficiently, varieties
capable, for example, of better tolerating drought or disease.
The effort will be led by Drs. Theresa Fulton, Alexandra Casa and
Stephen Kresovich. The Institute for Genomic Diversity, established
in 1998 and located at Cornell University, New York, has a
well-established research program and strong global ties,
particularly in Africa, developed through training programs and the
creation of resource materials for scientists. Dr. Fulton is the Director of
Outreach and Training at IGD. She is the coauthor of a molecular
marker training CD and has worked in organizing workshops on the same
topic.
She is currently compiling and developing resources for scientists
on an Interactive Resource Center (IRC) and Helpdesk (see http://irc.igd.cornell.edu) supported by the Generation Challenge
Program, and working on a follow-up training CD on comparative
genomics.
Dr.Casa is a Research Associate at IGD and is currently working on
an US National Science Foundation-funded project aimed at characterizing
levels of molecular diversity in sorghum using both microsatellite
and DNA sequence data (data publicly available at http://igd.tc.cornell.edu).
Results from this work have allowed IGD
to quantify levels of diversity in sorghum and establish population parameters
that can help it to identify genomic regions under selection much more precisely. As part of the IGD mission, Dr. Casa has also played an important role in assisting and training foreign nationals in their daily laboratory activities. Dr. Kresovich is Director of the Institute for Genomic Diversity and since July 2005 Cornell University's Vice Provost for Life Sciences.
Specific project goals :
- Assessing and compiling currently available resources,
such as genetic maps, microsatellite data, databases;
- Assessing how the available resources can best be
made available to scientists worldwide;
- Making these resources available through a centralized
website;
- Making the compiled resources more accessible and
user-friendly, by developing tutorials as Needed;
- Developing a longer term plan for the development
of further needed resources.
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