CATALOGUE OF GENE SYMBOLS FOR WHEAT

RA McIntosh1, GE Hart2, KM Devos3, MD Gale3 and WJ Rogers4
 
 

1Plant Breeding Institute Cobbitty, Private Bag 11, Camden, NSW 2570, Australia
2Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA
3John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7UH, England
4Catedra de Genetica y Fitotecnia, Facultad de Agronomia, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina

  The present revision completes 30 years in my role as Co-ordinator of the Catalogue of Gene Symbols for Wheat. The decision to have a wheat catalogue was made at the Third International Wheat Genetics Symposium held in Canberra, Australia, in 1968. At that Symposium I was appointed Co-ordinator and the first Catalogue was presented and adopted at the Fourth Symposium held in Columbia, Missouri, USA in 1973. Annual revisions have been published since then and full updates have been prepared for all, except one, Symposia. During this period the length of the Catalogue has increased from 52 to approximately 250 pages and the number of references from 328 to 1,651.

If the Catalogue is to continue it is essential to link it to a database capable of rapid updating. The present Catalogue was prepared in a way that should expedite transfer to such a system.

The Catalogue is never complete. Information can always be added - the problem is what information, and in what form. Catalogue users vary from basic scientists to extension workers, and the information each person requires can be quite different. For these reasons, different sections of the Catalogue were prepared in different ways. At the molecular level we are becoming increasingly universal in plant genomics whereas at the agronomic level the target organism is still wheat. A useful and successful Catalogue must cover the entire range of needs.

The 1993 Catalogue included a series of genetic maps. This aspect has been adopted by the International Triticeae Mapping Initiative (ITMI) and regularly updated maps are now part of its role.

The preparation and maintenance of the Catalogue is becoming increasingly dependent on additional people. In addition to Drs. Gary Hart and Mike Gale, Drs. Katrien Devos and John Rogers were co-opted as additional curators. However, most of the updating of the past document has fallen upon Ms. Sally Jeffrey and myself with considerable help from Dr. Gary Hart, Mrs. L. Daqiq and Mrs. B. Gibson. Undoubtedly there are errors in the way in which some information was added - for this I must accept responsibility. As usual I request advice of errors and omissions as well as suggestions to make our Catalogue more useful and accurate for everyone.

I wish to record our thanks to the editors of Wheat Information Services and Annual Wheat Newsletter for publishing the Annual Supplements. My thanks also go to Mrs. N. Barnes, Mrs. L. Daqiq and Mrs. B. Gibson for assistance in maintaining records and in preparing the last five supplements as well as this edition.

My position and those of Mrs. Barnes, and more recently Mrs. Daqiq, within the University of Sydney were supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation.
 
 

R.A. McIntosh
20 April 1998