Published in Probe Volume 3(1-2): January-June 1993
Dr. Duane Acker
Former Assistant Secretary for Science and Education
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Washington, DC
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is committed to the Plant Genome Research Program. The efficiency and effectiveness of the program during its first 2 years of existence have demonstrated the worthiness of the Department's scientific and financial investments.
The Plant Genome Research Program ranks as one of the most important research program areas in USDA. Achievement of the program's goals will have significant, long-term impacts on improving the quality, productivity, and other characteristics of plants and their products.
The program will provide essential information that will help us keep moving forward with improvements in crops. In some crops, such as corn, soybeans, and wheat, we may be approaching the limits of improvement we can make based on traditional breeding and our current knowledge of the crop.
We must make more rapid progress in adapting major crops and their products to the needs and desires of both U.S. and foreign processors and consumers. In addition, by the year 2050 the world's population will double, and agriculture will be faced with providing an adequate food supply for an additional 5 billion people, while the land available for agriculture will be decreasing.
Genome map data will allow plant breeders, both traditional and those in molecular biology, to combine their efforts and make more rapid and more predictable progress in their important work. This efficiency can only come as the result of developing a precise description of the gene structure and the traits controlled--information that will reduce the long and difficult task of selective breeding.
We believe that indepth, coordinated research on the genomes of the agronomically important crops is vital to insuring the future food supply of the United States and the world.
It is especially important that work on plant genomes be a cooperative effort among Federal, university, and industry scientists, fostering an exchange of information and results. Communication and cooperation are essential. AResources are too tight now to allow for duplicative research--for the wheel to be re-invented again and again.
High-Priority Designation
Research priorities for USDA are the result of a consultative process involving 33 public and private organizations and agencies. AProblems and opportunities that should be considered for priority designation are identified by producers, consumers, scientists, educators, and professional societies.
These items are then evaluated and ranked by the Joint Council, in collaboration with the Research and Extension Users Advisory Board, and suggestions for high priority designation are sent to the Secretary of Agriculture.
In May 1992, 21 areas were assigned a high priority designation for fiscal year 1993. AThis list included plant genome mapping and genetic enhancement. "New knowledge about the molecular and cellular processes of animal and plant inheritance is the key to developing new products and to enhancing the safety and nutrition of food," according to the Joint Council report on research priorities.
In addition, results from the Plant Genome Research Program identify genes that control tolerance to an insect pest, then crops with more insect resistance can be developed. AWith such resistant crops, the need for pesticide application will be reduced, and the possibility of pesticide runoff into groundwater will be lessened. Water quality will be easier to maintain or enhance.
Results from the program will also have a ripple effect, helping to improve rural economies as higher value crops with more potential for processing are developed.
USDA Commitment
USDA allocated a budget of $14.7 million for the Plant Genome Program in fiscal year 1991 and $15 million in fiscal year 1992; the program was funded at a level of $18 million for fiscal year 1993.
As an additional sign of USDA's commitment to the Plant Genome Research Program, Dr. Jerome Miksche's appointment as Director of the Plant Genome Research Initiative has been changed from a part-time to a full-time position.
And the National Agricultural Library, with $2.38 million in interim funding from the Agricultural Research Service, has taken the lead in making the vast amount of information being developed available through computer database systems.
The Plant Genome Research Program has received authorization for 5 years of support. In 1996, at the close of those 5 years, the program will be evaluated and a progress report made to the Secretary of Agriculture and the Congress.
Re-authorization will depend on the program having achieved tangible results. The Plant Genome Research Program is mission oriented. While basic research is important and technique development is essential, the program must remain focused on economically important traits of crops. Currently, research in this program is addressing agronomic traits in more than 40 crop and tree species.
The impetus for the continuation of the program will come from the successful isolation and transfer of genes that control such traits and their regulatory systems; the development of new gene mapping, sequencing, and automation systems; and the implementation of a national and international database on genetic information.
The clear exchange of information and the prevention of research duplication will also help ensure the re-authorization of the program. The cooperation of the four USDA agencies directly involved in this program-- Agricultural Research Service, Cooperative State Research Service, National Agricultural Library, and Forest Service--has been excellent. Such cooperation must continue and increase.
Cooperation and coordination between this program and the Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy have also enhanced the productivity and efficiency of both projects. There has been a practical interchange of information on new technologies and basic genomic research data.
In the short time--just 2 years--that the NRI Plant Genome Competitive Grants Program has been under way, the identification and mapping of some insect and plant disease resistance gene systems are already nearing the point where they can be tested by breeders.
This bodes well for the effectiveness of a targeted competitive grants approach to solving difficult, critical agricultural problems.