8/6/99

Contacts:
Chris Tuggle, Animal Science, (515) 294-4252
Karen Bolluyt, Agriculture Information, (515) 294-3701

ISU TO LEAD PROJECT TO SEQUENCE 20,000 PIG GENES

AMES -- Iowa State University researchers will lead a $700,000 project to sequence 20,000 genes in pigs and identify the physical location of at least 700 genes of special interest to producers and scientists.

The University of Iowa will give the USDA-funded pig genome project a boost by contributing current information about the human genome and cloning technology that is faster, less expensive and more likely to reveal unknown genes than technology used to date.

"We're part of an international effort in gene mapping and genomics in the pig [called PiGMaP]. This was the only project to receive a large pig-gene-mapping grant in the USDA's 1999 National Research Initiative. Our partnership with the University of Iowa was a strong selling point," said Christopher Tuggle, ISU animal scientist and leader of the multi-state project.

Other partners in the two-year project are the University of Illinois, the University of Missouri, the University of Nebraska and the National Center for Genomic Resources in Sante Fe.

Tuggle and Max Rothschild, also an ISU animal scientist, are co-leaders for the ISU contribution to the study. Tuggle said that current maps of the pig genome are not informative enough for practical application in breed improvement or for molecular-level studies of biological processes such as reproduction and growth.

"It is difficult to improve reproduction with classical breeding methods. This research will help us identify thousands of genes associated with the physiology of reproduction," Tuggle said.

The researchers credit the Iowa Legislature and Iowa State University with building the foundation that helped them win the grant. New investments in bioinformatics at Iowa State, for example, have provided the capacity to build and analyze data sets for thousands of genes.

Information generated by this project will be made available to researchers at other institutions.

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