Erratum
for J Hered 99 (5) 569-571.
Journal of Heredity 2008 99(6):699-701; doi:10.1093/jhered/esn089
© The American Genetic Association. 2008. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.
Erratum
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Journal of Heredity 99(6): 569–571. 2008. doi:10.1093/jhered/esn059
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The original publication of these announcements did not include
a photograph of Patricia Baião. A photograph has now
been inserted. The publisher regrets this error.
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Student Award
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The Stephen J. O'Brien Award for the best student paper published
in
Journal of Heredity the previous volume is awarded at the
annual meeting of the American Genetics Association (AGA) and
includes a cash prize of $1,000. The award is intended to honor
Dr. O'Brien's many years of exemplary service as Editor-In-Chief
of
Journal of Heredity. Papers are eligible for the 2008 award
if the first author was a registered student at the time of
manuscript submission and if the article is published in Volume
99 of
Journal of Heredity. Please contact the Managing Editor
(
agajoh{at}oregonstate.edu) regarding candidates.
See special announcement regarding the 2007 award recipients in this issue and at http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/.
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Special Event Awards
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The AGA grants awards each year to AGA members for support of
special events that further the purposes of the Association.
Eligible events include specialized workshops open to Association
members in areas of great current interest and short courses
in some aspect of organismal genetics, but any event that would
advance the purpose of the Association is eligible for support.
The AGA Council is pleased to announce the recipients of this year's Special Event Awards, approved at their June 2008 meeting:
- $12,500 to: "Genome 10K- An initiative to assemble 10,000 vertebrate species' bio-specimens suitable for whole genome DNA sequencing with advanced high-throughput sequencing technologies"
David Haussler, Oliver Ryder, Stephen J. O'Brien
- $18,000 to: "The AGA/Smithsonian sponsored: Short Training Course in Recent Advances in Conservation Genetics (ConGen-2010)"
Stephen J. O'Brien, Warren Johnson, Jill Pecon-Slattery, Al Roca, Jennifer Troyer, Bailey Kessing
- $14,800 to: "V taller latinoamericano de genética para la conservación: la ecología molecular al servicio de la conservación de especies silvestres"
(The fifth Latin American conservation genetics workshop: Molecular ecology in the service of wildlife conservation)
Kathryn M. Rodríguez-Clark, Marisol Aguilera, María A. Oliveira-Miranda, Angela M. G. Martino
- $16,000 to: "Next Generation Sequencing In Non-Model Organisms"
Rachael O'Neill and Linda Strasbaugh
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AGA Council Elections 2008
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This year's elections will be held online in early November.
AGA members please watch for an email or letter with the information you need to vote.
The procedure is simple: all AGA members will receive a membership number and a voting "token", akin to a password, allowing them to register their vote, by email if we have your address. Once the ballot opens, the election Web site will show the slate of candidates with brief biographical statements and voting instructions. The token ensures that each member votes only once, and that the results are submitted anonymously. No paper ballots to send, no stamps to find, no anxiety about the vagaries of snail mail!
Make voting and AGA communications easier by sending your email address and subscription number to: jnls.cust.serv{at}oxfordjournals.org. Oxford University Press will send only communications concerning the AGA or Journal of Heredity.
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American Genetic Association presents first annual Stephen J. O'Brien Award
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At their June 2008 meeting, the Council of the AGA granted the
first annual Stephen J. O'Brien Award for the best student-authored
article published in
Journal of Heredity’s 2007 volume.
The award honors Dr Stephen J. O'Brien, Chief of the National
Cancer Institute's Laboratory of Genomic Diversity and head
of the Section of Genetics, who served as Editor-In-Chief for
the Journal from 1987–2007.
Due to the high quality of eligible articles, the award, which includes a $1,000 prize for each recipient, was given to two young researchers:
Vânia Azevedo, for her paper "Genetic Structure and Mating System of Manilkara huberi (Ducke) A. Chev., a Heavily Logged Amazonian Timber Species" (supervisors, Dr. Dario Grattapaglia and Dr. Ana Ciampi, University of Brasília); and Patricia Carvalho Baião, for "The Genetic Basis of the Plumage Polymorphism in Red-Footed Boobies (Sula sula): a Melanocortin-1 Receptor (MC1R) Analysis" (supervisor, Dr. Patricia Parker, University of Missouri-St. Louis). Both women are natives of Brasilia, Brazil, and were undergraduate classmates in Biological Sciences at the University of Brasilia.
Trudy Mackay, President of the AGA, commented:
"The Council evaluated whether candidate articles were substantial, novel and synthetic in their approaches. The Amazonian timber story has a strong conservation genetics element that makes it very timely. Our high ranking of the plumage paper was because of the clear application of gene discovery to an interesting organismal trait. Both articles are excellent, and the Council is pleased to present the award to both student authors."
The Council thanks the members of the Award Committee, Dr. William Tracy, Dr. Jill Pecon-Slattery and Dr. Scott Baker, for reading all eligible articles and providing recommendations.
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Summary of the winning article and author biography
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Genetic Structure and Mating System of Manilkara huberi (Ducke) A. Chev., a Heavily Logged Amazonian Timber Species
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Azevedo, V.C.R., Kanashiro, M., Ciampi, A.Y. and Grattapaglia,
D., JHered 98(7): 646–654
The work on Manilkara huberi was an important component of the Dendrogene Project, which applies scientific knowledge of species composition, reproductive health and genetics to promote sustainable rainforest management in the Brazilian Amazon. Information on spatial genetic structure, mating systems and gene flow in natural populations was collected to provide a better understanding of population dynamics and genetic diversity patterns. The authors carried out genetic pattern analyses of adult trees and seedlings from plots that had been logged. In parallel, simulation studies for different logging scenarios were conducted. The results obtained will contribute to designing sounder management strategies to achieve both sustained use and conservation of genetic resources in the region's natural forest. This work formed part of Dr. Azevedo's PhD thesis. The Dendrogene Project, coordinated by Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, is a bilateral cooperation between Brazilian and United Kingdom governments (ABC-MRE/DFID), with the collaboration of national and international institutions.
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Figure 1. Vânia Azevedo, a 28-year-old Brazilian researcher, studied Biological Sciences at the University of Brasília (1998-2002). Since graduation, she has been working on projects related to genetic conservation of native Brazilian trees, especially from the Amazon. In 2004, she began a Master's degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Brasília, then transferred to the PhD program under the direction of Dr. Dario Grattapaglia and Dr. Ana Ciampi, receiving her doctorate in 2007. Her PhD work was part of the Dendrogene Project. In 2007, Vânia began her current position as a researcher at Embrapa Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia (Brazilian Agricultural Research Enterprise – National Center for Research on Genetic Resources and Biotechnology). At Embrapa, she is coordinating three new genetic conservation projects, as well as continuing work on two Dendrogene projects. Two of the new projects are generating genetic information on native species, Bertholletia excelsa (Brazil nut) and Ilex paraguariensis (mate tea) for management and conservation programs. The third project's aim is to establish a Plant DNA Bank of Brazilian native, rare and endangered species.
Email: azevedovcr{at}cenargen.embrapa.br
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Figure 2. Patricia Baião was born in Brasília, Brazil, and concluded her Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Brasília in 2003. She obtained her Master's degree at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2005, working with Dr. Patricia Parker. Her Master's thesis focused on the striking plumage color variation of red-footed boobies in the Galápagos archipelago. She is currently a PhD candidate with Dr. Parker, and is continuing her studies on various aspects of phenotypic variation of these amazing seabirds.
Email: pccg24{at}umsl.edu
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Summary of the winning article and author biography
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The Genetic Basis of the Plumage Polymorphism in Red-Footed Boobies (Sula sula): a Melanocortin-1 Receptor (MC1R) Analysis
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Baião, Patricia C., Schreiber, E.A. and Parker, Patricia
G., JHered 98(4): 287-292
The red-footed booby is a charismatic tropical seabird that bears unique glaring red feet, as its common name suggests. In addition, individual birds present striking variation in plumage color, from stark white with black wing-tips to allover brown. Patricia Baião, a PhD student at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, studies the underlying genetic mechanisms responsible for producing these striking color patterns, and whether the birds themselves seem to use these plumage differences or brightness of feet to glean useful information about their current and prospective mates. In the Journal of Heredity article, Baião and her collaborators revealed the underlying mechanism responsible for the plumage color differences in this species. The melanocortin 1-receptor (MC1R) plays an important role in the control of synthesis and deposition of the dark pigment melanin on feathers, and this study showed differences in the DNA sequence of that gene that perfectly matched the color pattern displayed by each bird. Even though the vast array of plumage color variation in birds has attracted the interest of scientists for decades, it was not until recently that significant progress was made on determining the genetic components of these coloration patterns. This study adds to the growing body of knowledge about the genetic control of melanin-based plumage variation and expands it to seabirds, a group that had not been previously analyzed. Revealing the genetic components of color variation leads to understanding the evolutionary processes in coloration and the role that these striking differences play for the birds themselves.
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Student Award