Preface

PGA

"Pisum Genetics"		 The Pisum Genetics Association (PGA) is a non-profit, unincorporated organization established to foster genetic study of the pea, to facilitate the exchange of information and to ensure preservation of valuable genetic stocks. Pisum Genetics (formerly The Pisum Newsletter = PNL) is the principal means of meeting these aims. Published annually in one issue, Pisum Genetics contains reports of research findings and other information relating to genetic variation in Pisum. The PGA currently has 160 members from 28 countries.
Membership



Payment of dues		 Membership of the PGA is open to all interested persons and organizations. Dues are $15 U.S. or $20 Australian per annum. Cheques for an equivalent sum are acceptable in any other major currency, e.g. Danish kronar, English pounds, French francs or Japanese yen. Please do not send Money Orders. Dues are used to help defray the costs of publishing and mailing Pisum Genetics. Members are encouraged to pay dues for two or more years to simplify bookkeeping and to reduce losses through bank charges which are Aust $2.50 per cheque regardless of the size of the cheque. Please make cheques payable to Pisum Genetics Association and send to Prof I.C. Murfet, Dept. of Plant Science, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-55, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia. Pisum Genetics will be sent on receipt of dues.
Editor The Editor, Prof I.C. Murfet, may be contacted at the above address by phone 61 3 62262605, fax 61 3 62262698 or e-mail (Ian.Murfet@utas.edu.au).
Manuscripts Please submit manuscripts double-spaced. Figures should be ready to print and of good quality. Tables should be set out in accordance with established format. References should be listed in alphabetical then chronological order and full details supplied for papers in monographs, e.g. give details of editors, publisher and city, page numbers and list all authors; Smith et al. is not sufficient. Research papers should be organised concisely in the format of a short introduction outlining the background to and aim of the study, a materials and methods section with essential details and references to techniques, a results section and a discussion section interpreting the results and integrating findings with those of other workers. Section headings are not obligatory. Conclusions should be justified, where applicable, by appropriate statistical analysis. Length should generally be kept within the range of 1-4 journal pages but longer papers will be considered on their merits. Research papers and reviews are subjected to peer review and revision if necessary. Research papers should contain original work not currently submitted to any other journal. Review articles are obtained by invitation. However, the Editor would welcome enquiries or suggestions regarding possible review topics. Papers will not be rejected because the English is not fluent. However, the intended meaning must be clear, the scientific content sound and appropriate, the conclusions justified and the organisation logical. Abstracts may be submitted of work to be published elsewhere or conference papers. Issues of interest to members may be discussed in the forum section or raised as letters to the editor.
Electronic mail and WWW Contributors are encouraged to send in correspondence by e-mail with articles as attachments. We use a Eudora e-mail system, Mac computers and Microsoft Word 6 for processing. To retain format, attachments from PCs should be uuencoded. Photographs can be sent by JPEG. These methods have proved useful for regions where mail and fax delivery have proved uncertain. A future goal is to place Pisum Genetics on the Internet. Already the Institute of Cytology and Genetics at Novosibirsk, a major centre for pea research, has three internet sites of interest to pea researchers: a home site (http://pisum.bionet.nsc.ru), a pea linkage map (http://pisum.bionet.nsc.ru/peamap/index.htm) and papers submitted to Pisum Genetics from Novosibirsk (http://pisum.bionet.nsc.ru/PG/index.htm).
Gene Symbols






Pea Genetic
Stocks Centres		 Mr Mike Ambrose (John Innes Centre, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK; phone 44 1603 452571, fax 44 1603 456844, e-mail mike.ambrose@bbsrc.ac.uk) continues as Co-ordinator of Gene Symbols. If you are proposing a new gene symbol please check with Mike that the symbol is free and appropriate. In most cases not more than three letters are necessary to symbolise a locus. Again if you are proposing a new gene please make a reasonable effort to check for allelism with established genes of similar type. (Reports where allelism tests have not been done risk rejection). This saves the literature being cluttered with confusing synonyms. In this issue, the Arabidopsis system for symbolising multiple alleles has generally been adopted (see page 47). In due course, please send type lines for new genes and alleles, and relevant reprints, to Mike Ambrose as the John Innes Centre has now taken on responsibility in regard to the maintenance and supply of pea type lines and representative lines. A JI Pisum Genetic Stocks catalogue is now available from Mike. Members are reminded that the USA national Pisum collection and the G.A. Marx Pisum Genetics Stocks Collection have been transferred from Geneva, NY to Pullman, WA and enquiries concerning this material should be addressed to Dr R.M. Hannan, USDA-ARS, Western Regional Plant Introduction Station, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164.
Linkage map The Linkage Map Co-ordinator is Prof Norman F. Weeden (Dept. of Hort. Sci., Cornell Univ./ NYSAES, Geneva, NY 14456, USA; phone 1 315 787 2245, fax 1 315 787 2320, e-mail nfw1@nysaes.cornell.edu). The most recent map update provided by the Linkage Committee appears in Pisum Genetics 28:1-4. Good progress has been made in the past year toward obtaining a stable linkage map of pea with seven linkage groups each identified with a particular chromosome. That goal is now in sight. The use of molecular markers has certainly aided in that achievement. The next step will be to identify key, widely usable, molecular markers to act as anchor loci and then integrate into this framework the conventional genes. Many recent maps have been based heavily on molecular markers with only a few conventional genes. Even our PGA maps have seen many excellent conventional markers pushed to the side or foot. We need now to redress that situation. Researchers submitting mapping papers are asked to follow the mapping guidelines (Pisum Genetics 25:13-14, 1993) as this will improve the rigour of the work and help avoid some of the pitfalls of the past.
Meetings in 1998 The 3rd European Conference on Grain Legumes will be held at Valladolid, Spain on 14-19 Nov 1998. Contact: AEP 1998 Conference, 12 avenue George V, 75008 Paris, France; fax 31 1 47 23 58 72.
Thanks Thanks to all members (and non-members) who assisted with the refereeing and in other ways helped with the work of the PGA. Special thanks to Norm Weeden (Map Co-ordinator/Associate Editor); Mike Ambrose (Gene Symbols Co-ordinator); Oleg Kosterin, Alexey Borisov and Serge Rozov for their help with PGA matters in Russia; Sarah Hunter and Gaye Johnson for excellent and much appreciated help with correspondence and preparation of Volume 29; and Kit Williams for his cheerful, patient and skillful resolution of computing problems. Thanks also to Norm Weeden who has taken over the role of sending out back issues (Volumes 4, 6 and 11 are now out of print) from Geneva, NY. Lastly, thanks to Robyne Kerr and the crew in the Printing Section for their prompt and efficient printing and binding of Pisum Genetics. I am particularly grateful to Robyne for her help in preparing pages involving photographs submitted as JPEG files.
I.C. Murfet for the Co-ordinating Committee:
S. Blixt F. Muehlbauer W.K. Swiecicki
E. Gritton I. Murfet N. Weeden C. Hedley
J. Reid L. Monti B. Sharma