A convenient point of access to communicate information on molecular characterization and traditional uses of maize germplasm Titus Harrison 1, Trent Seigfried 2, Darwin Campbell 2, Von Mark Cruz 3, Candice Gardner 2&3, Carolyn Lawrence 2,3,&4 1. New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM. 2. USDA-ARS, Ames, IA Dept. of Agronomy, Iowa State University Ames, IA Dept. of Genetics, Development & Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA Abstract A web interface was fabricated for data that were generated by students conducting experiments that aimed to develop molecular markers for the Abnormal 10 chromosome of maize. Because communication is required to provide this knowledge to a vast population, an online web interface for presentation and documentation was developed and has been made accessible to the general public. The project website was coded in html and provides information about the summer research program itself, data generated in the wet lab, and various traditional uses of maize. About Author I am from Tocito, New Mexico. It is a small community that is located within the Navajo Reservation. I am a full-blooded Navajo Indian. In my culture it is proper when introducing oneself, that they say their clans. My clans are Tl'aashchí'í born for Ta'néészahnii. My maternal grandfather's clan is Naakaii Dine'é and I do not know my paternal grandfather's clan. I just recently graduated from Navajo Preparatory School in Farmington New Mexico. I will be attending New Mexico State in the fall and will major in Psychology with a minor in Computer Science. Background Maize normally has 10 chromosomes that dictate its whole genetic makeup. The common version of the tenth chromosome is called Normal 10 (N10). However researchers have found that there exists an uncommon version of the tenth chromosome. This uncommon version is named Abnormal 10 (Ab10). Ab10 could constitute a problem for germplasm maintenance efforts because it causes preferential segregation of all knobs and linked loci to the next generation. It also causes the neocentromeric activity of all knobs. The greatest fear of researchers is the loss of diversity to maize accessions that have Ab10 present. The interns working on this problem collected DNA from maize accessions collected in the American Southwest that are made available from the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station. By using Simple Sequences Repeat (SSR) markers, there is hope to identify which plants have Ab10 and which do not. By doing this research and developing new methods to propagate the plants, there is hope to maintain diversity among the plants, which could preserve the genetic diversity that enables the plants to be immune to a variety of diseases. The outcomes of this work was taken and transcribed into a web interface that is available to the public. Research All the interns worked at the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station in Ames, Iowa. Work was done there to understand the process of collecting germplasm, also to realize the importance of germplasm and diversity in plant species. Four students then collected leaf samples from the field and worked in the wet lab to generate SSR markers. That data was then taken, and posted on the internet. The web interface was created by two students, including myself. The web pages were created by using Hyper Text Mark-up Language (html) tags. A total of 24 pages were created, complete with links, pictures data. Samples of the html tags is to the right and the page it codes is shown below. Above: sample of HTML tags Conclusion Web interface was completed First year of project a success Connections between interns and mentors established Webpage available at: PI Station I was given the opportunity to work with several individuals from the PI Station. They include: Samuel N. Flomo (Amaranth) Matt Lively and David Losure (Maize) Jo-Ann H. McCoy (Medicinal) Lucinda D. Clark (Vegetables) Pete D. Cyr (IT Specialist) Maria Eriksen (Germination) Acknowledgements I would like to thank: George Washington Carver Internship Carolyn Lawrence Candice Gardner Trent Seigfried Darwin Campbell PI Station Staff and cultivators United States Department of Agricultural National Science Foundation