RosBREED Never Sleeps Integration & value of international partners Amy Iezzoni, Michigan State University Cameron Peace, Washington State University

Found a nice QTL for crispness! Cool! Alright, Im figuring out the functional alleles… Great! Try these new predictive primers Primers work great! Info ready for our breeders

Outline of Presentation RosBREED and our international partners: an Introduction Attracting key international collaborators International collaborators become international partners Full integration and value of international partners

RosBREED and our international partners: an introduction

PI: Amy Iezzoni, M ICHIGAN S TATE U NIVERSITY 4 years, S EP 2009 – A UG 2013 Funded by SCRI (USDA-NIFAs Specialty Crop Research Initiative) $14.4 M ($7.2 M SCRI, $7.2 M in-kind Partners) The RosBREED Project

Mission

CROPS of the ROSACEAE FAMILY Were In It Together

Demonstration Breeding Programs

Challenge 1 QTLs found in experimental populations are rarely used for MAB – validation with breeding germplasm done rarely and ad hoc! Challenge 2 >63 Mil genetic data points will be generated in RosBREED from genome scans of apple, peach, and cherry!

International Collaboration Solution World class Dutch stats & software team at Plant Research International/Wageningen University is a critical RosBREED subcontract Netherlands MSU local expertise

Plant Research International, Netherlands East Malling Research, UK CRA-FRU, Rome, Italy IASMA, Trento, Italy INRA ( Bordeaux, Avignon, Angers ), France Andres Bello University, Chile Plant & Food Research, New Zealand ARC, South Africa RosBREED participant location International Collaborators + 2 Scientific Advisory Panel members (Spain, New Zealand)

Attracting key international collaborators

International collaborators were attracted by a common problem that needed a solution Attracting Key Collaborators

The Chasm

The Chasm was not unique to the U.S. Many leading groups on the Genomics side of the chasm were not in the U.S. – to be successful we had to involve these key groups Discussions of how to bridge the chasm were ongoing (including international forums) for many years prior to our SCRI proposal The PROBLEM = The CHASM

Bridging the Chasm

RosBREED would provide solutions to a shared problem Solving would be more efficient, faster, and cost effective if we all worked together They supported the approach They were comfortable with the leadership team – due to prior relationships Bridging the Chasm Collaborators joined because…

International collaborators become international partners

Collaborators and Partners work together towards common mutually agreed-upon goals Partners, in partnerships, have legally binding agreements that define tasks and expectations Collaborators vs. Partners

The fund-matching requirement of SCRI projects created opportunities in innovation and partnership We required partners to make financial commitments and document expenditures for USDA audit This is very time consuming. Therefore partners need to be very supportive and committed to the project The Funding Match

Full integration and value of international partners

Example 1: The SNP Summit Goal: Develop genome-scanning capability at medium-resolution (1 fully informative marker per 5 cM) for peach, apple, and cherry What genotyping technology to use? Which specific markers to include? How can we do this most cost effectively?

Example 1: The SNP Summit Step 1 Bring everyone together in person to develop strategies, obtain buy-in, and assemble international teams to do the work Include representation from Illumina, the company that would commercialize the SNP arrays The SNP Summit

Example 1: The SNP Summit SNP Summit November 2010, held with 5 th International Rosaceae Genomics Conference in South Africa. RosBREED paid for our matching partners to attend

Example 1: The SNP Summit Step 2 No formal presentations – only brainstorming for 2 days But, did have mandated outcomes, and everyone felt the pressure

SNP Summit was a great success; - strategies agreed upon - crop teams given one month (!) to choose all SNPs -Illumina recognized us as an Ag Consortium and committed to commercialization of SNP arrays Example 1: The SNP Summit

SPECIAL EARLY ACCESS PRICING For 9000 SNPsTier ATier BTier CTier D Number of Samples (Total orders received for all Consortium members) < Price per Sample (USD)$100$75$65$60 Met our 1-month goal SNP arrays available to world for purchase from Illumina from Dec 2010 – at much lower cost than if RosBREED had gone it alone Example 1: The SNP Summit

And… Entire international Rosaceae genomics, genetics, & breeding community can continue to collaborate and share information – because identical genetic markers used

Example 2: Strawberry 56 chromosomes with much genetic redundancy Regarded as too scary to tackle by many scientists! Goal: Develop genome-scanning capability at medium-resolution (1 fully informative marker per 5 cM) for cultivated strawberry (octoploid)

Example 2: Strawberry Undaunted, commitment made at SNP Summit Word got out RosBREED not shying away from this challenge people joined Four international groups donated key segregating populations for inclusion in replicated RosBREED reference germplasm set Increased chance of success – all major strawberry genetics teams working together, sharing germplasm and markers

Location of European institutions that provided key populations Populations imported from – France – Spain – Netherlands – UK Example 2: Strawberry

And… Two new U.S. partners joined RosBREED at their own expense, providing additional field plot locations and evaluation data

Breeding Program Locations Phil Stewart, Driscolls Strawberry Associates Vance Whitaker, University of Florida Partnering strawberry breeders

Dr. Nahla Bassil, USDA- ARS Drs. Cindy Lawley, Mark Hansen & Jill Orwick, Illumina Inc. Drs Dorrie Main & Cameron Peace Wash State Univ. Dr. Eric van de Weg, Plant Research Int. Dr. Béatrice Denoyes-Rothan, INRA Drs. Iraida Amaya & José F. Sánchez Sevilla, IFAPA-Centro de Churriana Dr. Jasper Rees, ARC Dr. Dan Sargent, Istituto Agrario San Michele allAdige Drs. Tom Davis & Hailong Zhang, Univ. New Hampshire For genetic challenges, strategy developed through weekly conference calls Example 2: Strawberry Dr. Stephen Ficklin, Clemson Univ. Genomics Institute

Example 2: Strawberry International partnerships grown well beyond initial proposal RosBREED began bridge building, and others joined

Summary RosBREED tackles major scientific challenges that others share, and fills knowledge gaps Keys to attracting & benefiting from inclusion of international partners: - great ideas - communication - trust

Summary Working together vastly increases accomplishments - greater conceptual breakthroughs by sharing ideas - further reach by standing on each others shoulders with shared datasets And of course someone, somewhere, is always working RosBREED never sleeps!

Acknowledgements This project is supported by the Specialty Crop Research Initiative of USDAs National Institute of Food and Agriculture

MSU Amy Iezzoni (PD) Jim Hancock Dechun Wang Cholani Weebadde WSU Cameron Peace Dorrie Main Kate Evans Karina Gallardo Raymond Jussaume Vicki McCracken Nnadozie Oraguzie Mykel Taylor Cornell Susan Brown Kenong Xu Clemson Ksenija Gasic Gregory Reighard Texas A&M Dave Byrne Univ. of CA-Davis Tom Gradziel Carlos Crisosto Univ. of New Hamp. Tom Davis Univ. of Minnesota Jim Luby Chengyan Yue Oregon State Univ. Alexandra Stone Plant Research Intl, Netherlands Eric van de Weg Marco Bink USDA-ARS Nahla Bassil Gennaro Fazio Chad Finn Univ. of Arkansas John Clark