1. SolCAP Solanaceae Coordinated Agricultural Project What is SolCAP? The SolCAP project links together people from public institutions, private institutions and industries who are dedicated to the improvement of the Solanaceae crops: potato and tomato. Through innovative research, education and training the SolCAP project will focus on providing significant benefits to both the consumer and the environment. The SolCAP project is supported by the National Research Initiative Plant Genome Program of USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service. SolCAP project inception date: October 2008 Education Tomato US: $2 billion product value. The United States is one of the world's leading producers of tomatoes, second only to China. Tomato varieties are bred specifically for the requirements of either the fresh or the processing markets. Minnesota University of Minnesota Christian Thill Wisconsin USDA/ARS University of Wisconsin Shelly Jansky Michigan Michigan State University David Douches Robin Buell Kelly Zarka Ohio Ohio State University David Francis Deborah Lewis West Virginia West Virginia State University Barbara Liedl Lead Institution: Michigan State University Oregon Oregon State University Alexandra Stone M. Isabel Vales Cedar Lake Research and Consulting Michael Coe Idaho USDA/ARS University of Idaho Richard Novy California UC Davis Allen Van Deynze Roger Chetelat Campbells’ R&D Nankui Tong New York Cornell University Walter De Jong Lukas Mueller Maryland USDA/ARS Beltsville Kathleen Haynes North Carolina North Carolina State University Craig Yencho Florida University of Florida Jay Scott SolCAP Project Participants SolCAP Focus Traits Carbohydrate, Sugar content, Vitamin contentGermplasm Elite germplasm, Breeder driven, Appropriate out groupsTools Fund existing facilities to SNP genotype germplasm panels Flexible funding Genotyping additional populations for validation or additional traits marker conversion Data mining and management SGN, SolCAP websitesExtension eXtension; partner with other CAPsEducation Curriculum development; breeder workshops, graduate course Visit us at http://solcap.msu.edu E-mail us at solcap.msu.edu This project is supported by the National Research Initiative Plant Genome Program of USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service High Value Traits Targeted Sugar Content Carbohydrate Vitamin Content US: $3.2 billion product value on 461,000 ha (1.1 million acres) Most highly valued processing vegetable in the US. Potato varieties are bred specifically for table stock or processing (chip, frozen dehydrated products) markets. Potato SolCAP eXtension Component Provide leadership to bring all CAPs into the CoP CoP will collaboratively generate outreach materials that will be published on the public eXtension.org site for continuing education. SolCAP databases developed at SGN and the MSU central SolCAP website will be linked to eXtension information and vice-versa. Create a web community to foster cross-disciplinary and cross– commodity networking and collaboration within the Community of Practice (CoP). In Solanaceae There is a Major Gap Between Genomic Information and Breeding Tomato and potato breeding are based upon phenotypes, not genotypes, even though they are being sequenced even though they are being sequenced Sol Genomics Network (SGN) database is not being utilized by breeders Similar genomes, few examples of orthologous gene discovery Marker assisted breeding (MAB) is not generally practiced due to: -limited genetic diversity -limited genetic diversity -lack of genetic markers linked to traits of interest -lack of genetic markers linked to traits of interest SGN TOOLBOX Develop distance learning for graduate student courses in marker assisted breeding Workshops for breeders, staff, and graduate students in bioinformatics, marker theory and practice. Potato Breeder Workshops Tomato Breeder Workshops SolCAP SNP Analysis From the existing sequence databases, we have identified 7,700 potato and 5,200 tomato sequences with candidate SNP’s; these are being further validated using computational approaches cDNA Libraries for sequencing of potato and tomato using the Illumina Genomic Analyzer Genotype germplasm panels of 480 and mapping populations with Illumina, Luminex or Infinium · 75% of the SNP’s assayed will be random throughout the genome · 25% of the SNP’s assayed will be targeted to high value traits Breeders, geneticists, and bio-informaticians will work to create integrated genomic and phenotypic databases that serve the entire potato and tomato breeding and genetics community http://www.sgn.cornell.edu