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The Alfalfa Genome Conference |
| The goal of the conference from the outset was communication about the alfalfa genome. Almost all that is known about the genome to date was learned during the 20th Century. Broad communication was encouraged by distributing a questionnaire about ten months before the conference. About 60 respondents commented on what they considered the benchmarks this century, on what we might have done differently, and on directions that might be taken in the next century, as well as general philosophical comments. Longer and sometimes unique responses are included in their entirety. The remainder are being summarized and the respondents will be credited as a group. Not only are there many interesting perspectives and suggestions in the responses, there is much unpublished knowledge about the genome. Fortunately, this knowledge now is recorded in these proceedings. The insights on diploid Medicago falcata and its contribution to the cultivated genome, are of particular interest and importance. Sections at the TAG Conference, as it came to be called, included genome research at the nuclear DNA level, the organellar DNA level, the chromosome level, and the diploid genome including discussion of diploid model species M. sativa and M. truncatula. There were papers on reproductive biology, aluminum tolerance, and nitrogen fixation. Alfalfa transformation was in its own section and included wide hybrids from protoplast fusions. Alfalfa is efficiently transformed, and some of the research now is in the breeding stage. The final section was on breeding theory and practice, genetic resources, heterotic groups, and models of gene action. The autotetraploid genome of cultivated is far better understood currently due to research during the last half of the 20th century, and the genome is on a solid base of knowledge to underpin state-of-the-art research in the next century. Papers presented at the conference are going on line as they are received from the authors. Comments and questions about the papers can be forwarded directly to the authors. The web site can be checked periodically for additional papers, discussions, new information, corrections and so forth. The expected outcome is a continuing newsletter on The Alfalfa Genome at least until it appears that we have recorded appropriate past and present information. |
| Edwin T. Bingham University of Wisconsin-Madison August 26, 1999 |
"Unlike gold, alfalfa did not make history by motivating men to conquer and to exploit, or to search and seize. It was, and is, a crop for the peaceful pursuits of man. Its part in human affairs was not meant for the adventurer or the buccaneer; yet it followed in their wake to become one of the greatest forages of the new hemisphere, and also one of its principal sources of renewable wealth." |