i5K Coordinating Group

Conference Call Notes

May 16, 2018

10:00-11:00 (EST)

We need to continue on-going efforts to develop funding, especially positioning i5K to take advantage of potential funding opportunities resulting from the Earth BioGenome Project and other global or local genomics efforts.

Notes are under each agenda item in italics.

Attending: Marian Goldsmith, Sue Brown, Kevin Hackett, Anna Childers, Chris Childers, Monica Poelchau, Dave Hawthorne, Jay Evans, Glenn Hanes, Brad Coates

Regrets: fringy, Gene Robinson

  • I5K Pilot: Update, including Publications (fringy)
  • EBP Update (Gene, Kevin, fringy, Jon)

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  • EBP, PNAS
  • Genomics-enabled Success 1-pagers (Kevin, Gene)
  • There will be a meeting in November in London, Wellcome Trust is hosting.
  • Harris Lewin would like to see some 'success' 1-pagers for this meeting. It would help to think beyond single insects.
  • Marian: butterfly wing patterning project. This is asking deep questions, and has expanded beyond single species. Mechanisms of evolution. New models for genetic change. It's a pretty big story; they've had covers on prestigious journals. Could ask one of the leads (e.g. Chris Jiggins, Owen Mallett) to write something up. Marian can follow up.
  • Also, pest caterpillar studies are coming out that might be useful to look into, but they are still new and therefore might be suitable
  • Kevin's perspective: initial goals of the EBP project are for conservation biology. This doesn't impress USDA/applied people, since 1 species for each family isn't going to help (you'd need closer relationships). For USDA, phase 1 would be 'sequence every agricultural pest in the world'. EBP will help get other foundations interested.
  • Marian –it's probably not worth spending money on all ag pests, since there will be redundancy. If you sequence a member of each family, you will discover so much more diversity/mechanism__s.
  • Anna – RNAi in mite pests study (Varroa) – if we don't have the bee genome and others, then we don't know the off-target effects
  • Chris – funders are mission-focused. This proposal is geared towards basic research, so it's hard to tie this together. However, conservation could get funders motivated.
  • Sounds like there need to be different elevator speeches for different foundations.
  • Might also need to develop potential questions that would help pitching this (e.g. NSF-level kinds of questions).
  • Another possible approach: look at top/seminal papers to see what questions they asked, and what papers have been published as a result. Jay will do this for bees. Marian will do this for leps. Sue could try for beetles, and discuss at AGS in a few weeks.
  • Should we ask the community again for success stories, this time in a different manner? Sue – problem with previous surveys is that people didn't write the impact of what they did, but just what they found. Perhaps we need to do this on our own – to tease out the impact of the genomes that were already sequenced. At AGS, put up a poster, where people can write down genome/project – impact. If there's a bit of competition, then perhaps we'll get some more ideas.

  • oo** Monica will send out the spreadsheet that was previously compiled (and the questions associated with it)**

  • Funding
    • NHGRI-June (fringy, Mike, Gene, Sue)
  • Arthropod Genomics Symposium, U. Illinois (Gene, Sue)

Time permitting:

  • Technical Forum, idea from ESA (Kevin, Monica, Moni, Anna)
    • Anna sent a prototype of a Q&A page but didn't get any feedback. She can send around the prototype to the larger group.
  • Nominations for Core i5K Taxonomic Groups (fringy, Anna)

Immediate goal is to develop prioritized lists of species that cover all Arthropod families

- i5k Species Nomination Database Update: COIS (Anna, fringy)
- Identify and Recruit Order or Family Taxal Leads to Nominate Additional Species
  - Create Master List (Anna)
  • Prioritization of Species (fringy)
    • Create Criteria for Prioritization (Moni)
  • Organization of Sequenced and Nominated Species by Phylogeny
    • Determine the Best Schematic, i.e., Method of Display/Access (Chris)
  • Social Media Development Update (Moni, Marian)

  • Expand Participation in Monthly i5K Coordinating Group Calls (Kevin)

  • i5K-East Organization
    • Recruit Alexie to Lead (Monica)

  • Team Lead to Finalize Invitee List and Write Letter of Invitation

  • Other Business

  • i5K Webinar Update (Anna, Chris)
    • Need more speakers. Brad suggests finding a team/structure to help recruit. We should try to get ideas on this at AGS. Also, put up a poster board at AGS to find suggestions. In the past, we've had flyers for the webinars and website. Looks like the table of available genomes is being used well.
  • i5K Workshop Webinar (Chris)
  • Cornome Update (Coates, Jay)

NEXT MEETING: July 18, 2017

10:00-11:00 am EST

June meeting cancelled due to AGS meeting