I. FOREWORD

The Maize Genetics Cooperation Newsletter exists for the benefit of the maize community as an informal vehicle for communication. Its inception and continuation has been to foster cooperation among those interested in investigating maize. This cooperation has distinguished our field from others and as a consequence has moved it forward at a pace greater than would have occurred otherwise. Your submissions are encouraged to disseminate knowledge about our field that might otherwise go unrecorded.

Because maize is both a commercial species and a genetic model system, the danger exists that the sharing of research materials might be diminished. It is imperative for us to work together to prevent this from occurring. Certainly, basic findings should be transferred to the industrial sector and basic advances in industry should be shared with the academic community for the benefit of both. Published materials must be shared for research purposes with the only restriction being against commercial use.

We remind the readers that contributions to the Newsletter do not constitute formal publications. Citations to them should be accompanied by permission from the authors if at all possible. Notes can be submitted at any time and are entered into MaizeGDB. We set an arbitrary cutoff of January 1, 2007 for the next print copy, volume 81. Electronic submission is encouraged and is done by sending your contributions as attachments, or as text of an email, to [email protected]. Submissions must require minimal editing to be accepted.

We encourage the community to carry studies of general scientific interest to the formal literature. However, there is a great need to share technical tips, protocols, mutant descriptions, map information, ideas and other isolated information useful in the lab and field. This year, we call special attention to a number of special reports: the Maize Meeting Steering Committee (see pages 108-113); the Maize Genetics Executive Committee Community Survey Results (see pages 114-117); the Maize Genome Sequencing Project (see pages 72-74); and the table of Anchored BAC Contigs (see pages 75-97).

This year, the assembly, correction of copy and posting to the WWW was performed by Erin Broocke, an undergraduate student in the School of Journalism, University of Missouri-Columbia. As in the past, Shirley Kowalewski has been responsible for final redaction and layout of the copy. She has performed this task with speed, precision and a great sense of humor. The maize community owes her much gratitude for her continued service in this capacity.

Mary Schaeffer (Polacco)

James A. Birchler

Co-editors